Design Considerations of the Gate Drive Circuit for GaN HEMT Devices

Comparing with the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), the switching frequency of the gallium nitride enhancement mode high electron mobility transistor (GaN E-HEMT) can be significantly increased. However, the impacts of parasitic inductance and capacitance to the circuit performance should be taken into account for design considerations. In this paper, the gate drive circuit design for GaN E-HEMT is described in detail. The effectiveness of the design considerations is fully examined by the simulation software, LTSPICE with GaN E-HEMT model introduced by Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). From the simulation results, the parasitic effects caused by the parasitic components can be clearly observed. Thus, the simulation results can provide the insight of practical design. Finally, a buck converter with 1 MHz switching frequency is built according to these design considerations.