A Dual-Switch Discontinuous Current-Source Gate Driver for a Narrow On-Time Buck Converter

Abstract

This paper presents a new discontinuous current-source driver (CSD) with two control switches. The introduced CSD is appropriate for narrow on-time applications such as buck voltage regulator module. This driver has some important features such as considerable gate drive loss reduction due to gate energy recovery, significant reduction of switching losses, low circulating losses, and high Cdv/dt immunity. Compared to other discontinuous CSDs, the proposed circuit has following advantages: 1) reduced number of switches; 2) capability of operating at higher frequency for a specific duty cycle or ability to achieve smaller minimum duty cycle for a certain switching frequency. The proposed gate drive is analyzed and a 1-MHz prototype is implemented to validate the features of the proposed circuit.