A 100V reconfigurable synchronous gate driver with comparator-based dynamic dead-time control for high-voltage high-frequency DC-DC converters

This paper presents an integrated reconfigurable high-voltage (HV) synchronous gate driver for driving eGaN FET and Si-MOSFET power switches that have different turn-on-voltage requirements. The proposed gate driver has a comparator-based dynamic dead-time controller to enable zero-voltage-switching operation of both high- and low-side power FETs with minimal body diode conduction loss. Thanks to the proposed HV level shifter, large transient current can be generated under high dV/dt at the converter switching node for reliability enhancement. Implemented in a 0.5μm HV CMOS process, the proposed 100V synchronous gate driver can enable 2MHz and 1MHz ZVS operations for driving commercial eGaN FETs and MOSFETs, respectively. The dynamic dead-time controller enables ZVS operation of power switches for a wider input range from 40V to 100V. The proposed gate driver is capable of handling 100V/ns slew rate at the switching node.