A di/dt Feedback-Based Active Gate Driver for Smart Switching and Fast Overcurrent Protection of IGBT Modules

This paper presents an active gate driver (AGD) for IGBT modules to improve their overall performance under normal condition as well as fault condition. Specifically, during normal switching transients, a di/dt feedback controlled current source and current sink is introduced together with a push–pull buffer for dynamic gate current control. Compared to a conventional gate drive strategy, the proposed one has the capability of reducing the switching loss, delay time, and Miller plateau duration during turn-on and turn-off transient without sacrificing current and voltage stress. Under overcurrent condition, it provides a fast protection function for IGBT modules based on the evaluation of fault current level through the di/dt feedback signal. Moreover, the AGD features flexible protection modes, which overcomes the interruption of converter operation in the event of momentary short circuits. A step-down converter is built to evaluate the performance of the proposed driving schemes under various conditions, considering variation of turn-on/off gate resistance, current levels, and short-circuit fault types. Experimental results and detailed analysis are presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach.