Power electronics 2.0: IoT-connected and Al-controlled power electronics operating optimally for each user

The emerging trend of internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will bring about a major change in power electronics and create a new generation of the power electronics (Power Electronics 2.0). To enable the IoT- and Al-assisted Power Electronics 2.0, the integration of the sensors, the programmable hardware, and VLSIs for the controller into the power devices/modules is very important. In this paper, a 6-bit programmable gate driver IC with automatic optimization of gate driving waveform for IGBT is presented as the first step toward Power Electronics 2.0. In the proposed gate driver, the 6-bit gate control signals with four 160-ns time steps are globally optimized using a simulated annealing algorithm, reducing the collector current overshoot by 37% and the switching loss by 47% at the double pulse test of 300V, 50A IGBT. The gate driver is also applied to a half-bridge inverter, where the gate driving waveform is changed depending on the load current.