Gate driver design considerations for silicon carbide MOSFETs including series connected devices

In this study, design considerations of gate driver for silicon carbide (SiC) power devices is discussed. The work is focused in minimizing the common-mode current injection into the control circuit, thereby adapting the gate circuit to operate at higher dv/dt of fast switching transients. By reducing the common-mode interference with the control circuit, the signal integrity can be increased, spurious faults in the converter can be minimized and the reliability of the converter operation can be enhanced. The effect of the coupling capacitance of the isolation transformer in the gate driver design is taken into account. The shoot-through protection of the device is ensured based on device voltage measurement. The operation of the designed gate driver is validated through double pulse switching as well as continuous operation of various converters. All the corresponding test results are reported.