Gate Drive Power Supply Research Articles

A new three-level current-source PWM inverter and its application for grid connected power conditioner

This paper presents a novel topology of a three-level current-source PWM inverter totally driven by using single gate-drive power supply used for a grid connected inverter. The great feature of the proposed inverter circuit is that all of the power switches are connected on common-source or common-emitter configuration. Using this common-source current-source inverter (CS–CSI) the number of gate-drive power supply can dramatically be reduced into only a single power source without using bootstrap technique or many isolated power supplies. Operation of the proposed new inverter was tested by using computer simulation and experimentally. The simulation and experimental results proved that the inverter works properly generate a three-level output current waveform and inject a sinusoidal current into power grid with unity power factor operation. During grid connected operation, almost all harmonic orders are suppressed by using an additional harmonic suppression technique.

Gate Driver Supplies and Dead Time Management Circuits for AC to AC Converters

This paper presents an original implementation of a technique in AC-to-AC power converters to power the gate drivers of power transistors. AC-to-AC converters are well known for the complexity of their implementation due to the large number of power transistors required, many of which have different potential references. This requires a consequent number of insulated gate drivers and corresponding power supplies. Besides, MOS-MOS switching transitions (characterized by switching transitions among transistors without the introduction of freewheeling diode conduction time), typical of these converters, are complex to manage and often lead to voltage or current overshoots. The gate driver powering technique presented in this paper simplifies the global implementation of the converter as well as the management of MOS-MOS switching transitions. The proposed technique harvests energy from the power side, when this energy is available, in order to redistribute this energy to the transistor drivers. This original self-powering technique significantly simplifies the implementation of the transistor since it can be integrated within the power switch to be controlled. The immediate benefit is a reduced number of elements to be implemented, thus providing a cost-effective solution. As an additional benefit, the proposed technique simplifies the management of high-stress switching transitions. Indeed, the gate driver power supplies are designed to be sensitive to positive d <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">v</i> /d <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">t</i> , a feature that allows self-powering during the dead time of switching transitions. This leads to a reduction in both dead time duration and voltage overshoots, as validated by a practical implementation.

Novel current‐source multilevel inverter driven by single gate drive power supply

AbstractThis paper proposes a novel current‐source multilevel inverter, which is based on a current‐source half‐bridge topology. Multilevel inverters are effective for reducing harmonic distortion in the output voltage and the output current. However, the multilevel inverters require many gate drive power supplies to drive switching devices. The gate drive circuits using a bootstrap circuit and a pulse transformer can reduce the number of the gate drive power supplies, but the pulse width of the output PWM waveform is limited. Furthermore, high‐speed power switching devices are indispensable to create a high‐frequency power converter, but various problems, such as high‐frequency noise, arise due to the high dv/dt rate, especially in high‐side switching devices. The proposed current‐source multilevel inverter is composed of a common emitter topology for all switching devices. Therefore, it is possible to operate it with a single power supply for the gate drive circuit, which allows stabilizing the potential level of all the drive circuits. In this paper, the effectiveness of the proposed circuit is verified through experimental results. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(2): 88–95, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20475

A five-leg inverter for driving a traction motor and a compressor motor

This paper presents an integrated inverter for speed control of a traction motor and a compressor motor to reduce the compressor drive cost in electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicle applications. The inverter comprises five phase-legs; three of which are for control of a three-phase traction motor and the remaining two for a two-phase compressor motor with three terminals. The common terminal of the two-phase motor is tied to the neutral point of the three-phase traction motor to eliminate the requirement of a third phase leg. Further component reduction is made possible by sharing the switching devices, dc bus filter capacitors, gate drive power supplies, and control circuit. Simulation and experimental results are included to verify that speed control of the two motors is independent from each other.

Novel Current-Source Multi-Level Inverter Driven by Single Gate Drive Power Supply

This paper proposes a novel current-source multi-level inverter, which is based on a current-source half bridge topology. Multi-level inverters are effective to reduce harmonic distortion of the output voltage and the output current. However, the multi-level inverters require many gate drive power supplies to drive switching devices. The gate drive circuits using a bootstrap circuit and a pulse transformer can reduce the number of the gate drive power supplies, but a pulse width of the output PWM waveform is limited. Furthermore, high-speed power switching devices are indispensable to compose a high-frequency power converter but various problems of high frequency noise arise due to high dv/dt rate, especially in high-side switching devices.The proposed current-source multi-level inverter is composed with a common emitter topology of all switching devices. Therefore, it is possible to operate with a single power supply of gate drive circuit, which allows stabilizing a potential level of all the drive circuits.In this paper, effectiveness of the proposed circuit is verified with experimental results.

Fully Integrated Gate Drive Supply Around Power Switches

Main power switches such as metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors or insulated gate bipolar transistors have reached very high performances from an electrical point of view. If their electrical characteristics are getting closer to physical limits, there is still a lot to do to improve their functionalities. The paper presents the monolithic integration of a gate drive power supply with the power switch to be driven. The operating principle is discussed to demonstrate that all needed components for this function can be integrated with the power switch. It is also demonstrated that the solution does not require any main power switch technological process modification-leading to a cost effective solution. Modeling and analysis comments are provided in order to clarify and to present operating principles and possible design constraints. Finally, the realization itself is presented. Prototypes are used to highlight the interest of such function.

A Self-Boost Charge Pump Topology for a Gate Drive High-Side Power Supply

A self-boost charge pump topology is presented for a floating high-side gate drive power supply that features high voltage and current capabilities for use in integrated power electronic modules (IPEMs). The transformerless topology uses a small capacitor to transfer energy to the high-side switch from a single power supply referred to the negative rail. Unlike conventional bootstrap power supplies, no switching of the main phase-leg switches is required to provide power continuously to the high-side gate drive, even if the high-side switch is permanently on. Additional advantages include low parts-count and simple control requirements. A piecewise linear model of the self-boost charge pump is derived and the circuit's operating characteristics are analyzed. Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the desired operation of the new charge pump circuit. Guidelines are provided to assist with circuit component selection in new applications.

A Three-Level MOSFET Inverter for Low-Power Drives

This paper proposes operating a three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter using a two-level pulsewidth-modulation method. This allows for the clamping diodes to be rated at a fraction of the main switches due to their low average current requirement. The use of a bootstrap charge pump as a low-cost method to obtain the isolated gate drive power supplies is extended for use with the NPC topology. Using this control method and circuits, an inverter based on high-volume, low-cost, low-voltage power MOSFETs is experimentally demonstrated as a possible economic alternative to an insulated-gate-bipolar-transistor-based drive for 120-Vrms-supplied systems.

Novel Gate Drive Power Supply Circuit for High Voltage GTO Valves

In this paper, we propose a novel gate power supply circuit for high voltage GTO valves. The main feature of our circuit is the configuration itself that a power supply circuit is integrated into a snubber circuit of each GTO. A part of energy stored in a snubber capacitor is transferred to a power supply capacitor and the transferred energy is provided for a gate drive circuit. A concrete design of our circuit is represented according to a gate drive power which is necessary for each of series-connected GTOs. We verify the availability of our circuit using several successful simulation and experimental results.