Abstract
The benefits of high-power silicon carbide (SiC) bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) in terms of low conduction and switching losses, high-temperature capability, and increased reliability associated with the lack of gate oxide have been partially shadowed by the high-power consumption of its driver. This paper focuses on the optimization of SiC BJT base drivers and presents an innovative design of a proportional base current driver. The driver is a stand-alone system achieving instantaneous tracking of the collector current without the need for a current sensor and can also account for variations of the BJT’s dc current gain with the temperature. Implementation of these two features is realized by sensing the collector–emitter voltage, which is conditioned to be used as a reference voltage for a switching regulator featuring a megahertz synchronous buck converter. This leads to a variable base current that is proportional to the instantaneous collector current for the SiC BJT. The concept is validated using a 1.5-kW boost converter, which shows a significant reduction in power consumed by the driver.
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