An Optoisolator Based Gate Driver Design for Reliable Operation in High Power Motor Control Applications

This article presents a reliable and cost effective power MOSFET/IGBT driver for high power motor control applications. Analogous to the commercially available gate drivers, the proposed module is capable to operate in moderate range of frequency with very lower probability of failure. The design flexibility of the proposed module makes it more robust and effective in various motor control applications such as Electric Vehicle (EV), Water Pump etc. The design is tested in a setup which is developed to perform PMDC motor characteristics study for vehicular applications. Unlike the faulty issues associated in commercial gate drivers, the use of the proposed module is cost effective and highly reliable. A comprehensive analysis of various performance parameters extracted from the experimental results is extensively discussed. Furthermore a comparative study has been carried out with the existing integrated commercial drivers. The results show that the proposed driver is suitable for several low frequency power drive applications with lesser probability of failure.