A new gate driver circuit for improved turn-off characteristics of high current IGBT modules

In hard switching converters, power dissipation can be reduced by using high power device switching speed. However, fast turn-off of high current IGBT modules leads to high voltage transients for which the power devices have to be rated. In this paper, existing overvoltage protection schemes are briefly discussed and a new gate driver circuit with an improved trade-off between voltage transients and turn-off losses is proposed.