Low Coupling Capacitance Gate Driver Power Supply for Series-Connected Silicon Carbide Intelligent Power Module

Series connection is a cost-efficient solution for increasing the voltage rating of the power devices. The voltage imbalance between the series-connected power devices can pose critical challenge for the system reliability. This problem can be worsened in the silicon carbide (SiC) power module due to its higher switching slew rate. Moreover, the high switching slew rate can introduce larger common mode noise. To tackle the aforementioned problems, not only the power module package layout but also the gate driver design should be paid attention. This paper introduces a gate driver isolated power supply for the 3.3 kV series-connected SiC power module. To make the gate driver more compact for an intelligent power module package, a four-windings planar transformer is designed. To minimize the common mode noise propagated via the coupling capacitance on the transformer, the winding structure is optimized by analyzing the equivalent circuit model and ANSYS/Maxwell simulation study. Both simulation and experimental results have validated the functionality and superiorities of the proposed gate drive power supply in suppressing the coupling capacitance and size.