New Gate Driver Solutions for Modern Power Devices and Topologies

Power electronics systems are commonly used in motor drive, power supply and power conversion applications. They cover a wide output power spectrum: from several hundred watts in small drives up to megawatts in wind-power installations or large drive systems. Inside the system the gate driver circuit with its control, power supply and monitoring functions forms the interface between the microcontroller and the power switches (IGBT, FET). This paper will provide an overview of different gate driver topologies for different power ranges and will show numerous examples for monolithic integration of the driver functionality. Chipsets for high power drivers with a real potential separation (galvanic insulation), digital driver ICs with extensive data transfer between high side and low side by modems as well as fully integrated gate driver solutions for the low and medium power range with integrated potential separation are presented. Last but not least different gate driver solutions are shown for new topologies like 3-level half bridges and SiC-switches (MOSFET, JFET).