High Efficiency Isolated Half-Bridge Gate Driver with PCB Integrated Transformer

This paper describes in detail a novel concept for isolated gate drivers by combining the advantages of printed circuit board (PCB) integrated transformers with the high efficiency of a resonance driven voltage clamped gate drive circuit. The pros and cons of PCB integrated transformers in gate drive applications are discussed. The used resonance driven voltage clamped gate drive circuit is analyzed, the efficiency of the driver circuit is calculated and compared with the measured one. Overall measurements on the developed half-bridge driver prototype are presented and principle limitations are discussed.