A gate driver of SiC MOSFET with passive triggered auxiliary transistor in a phase-leg configuration

Abstract

This paper proposes a low cost gate driver of Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET with a passive triggered auxiliary transistor in a phase-leg configuration. Silicon Carbide MOSFET can work on high blocking voltage and high switching frequency with less temperature drift. However, high switching speed may amplify the negative influence of parasitic components and produce significant voltage spikes during switching transient. Therefore, eliminating the spikes of gate-source voltage in a phase-leg configuration plays an important role in providing the safe driving and low switching losses. The proposed gate driver uses a simple voltage dividing circuit to generate a negative gate-source voltage and a passive triggered transistor with a series capacitor to suppress negative voltage spikes, which could satisfy the stringent requirements of high switching SiC MOSFETs with low cost and less complexity. The performance of proposed gate driver is evaluated by simulation and experimental results.