Advanced Dual-Channel Gate Driver With Short-Circuit Protection for Series-Connected Medium-Voltage SiC MOSFETs

The dual-channel gate driver (D-GD) is widely employed in the industry to support the extensive adoption of half-bridge power modules. With the growing popularity of silicon-carbide (SiC) devices in medium-voltage (MV) scenarios known for their superior switching performance compared to traditional silicon counterparts, this article proposes a comprehensive D-GD design tailored for MV SiC mosfet half-bridge power module. To overcome the constraints imposed by the limited voltage ratings of power devices in high-voltage applications, unlike the traditional D-GD that operates by switching the two devices complementarily, the proposed D-GD is designed to switch them synchronously, aggregating the half-bridge module into a single device with doubled voltage rating. To achieve this, not only does the balanced voltage sharing of two series-connected devices need to be guaranteed, but also the effective short-circuit (SC) protection for series connection needs to be ensured, which is rarely covered in existing literature. Hence, in addition to essential gate driver features such as cross-talk suppression, gate protection, etc., the proposed D-GD incorporates an active voltage balancing circuit to realize balanced voltage sharing. Furthermore, a novel hybrid SC protection design for series connection is seamlessly integrated, achieving faster SC detection and more effective SC protection. The experimental results with a 3.3-kV / 750-A half-bridge SiC mosfet power module are presented, validating its operational performance.