Active Thermal Control of a DC-DC Converter Using Dynamic Gate-drive for Reliability Improvement

In this article, a new approach for smoothing junction temperature fluctuations through active thermal control is proposed. By utilizing a current-source gate drive and controlling switching transition, switching losses can be regulated in a way to control junction temperature swing which is a dominant reason of wear-out failure mechanisms in MOSFETs. The simulation results indicate a 29% increase in lifetime. Additionally, the experimental results demonstrate the capability of this approach to control the junction temperature of a MOSFET effectively.