Designing a SiC MOSFETs Gate Driver with High dv/dt Immunity and Rapid Short Circuit Protection for xEV Drivetrain Inverter

Abstract

In order to solve the SiC MOSFETs application problems including asymmetric gate voltage, low threshold voltage, lower short circuit withstand time, higher voltage and current transient rate (dv/dt, di/dt) at switching, this paper proposes a novel SiC MOSFET gate driver with ultra-small size integrated a high performance isolated DC-DC converter. The DC-DC power supply with low coupling capacitance and the active gate Miller clamp are used to reducing the influence of high dv/dt which is produced during switch transition. In addition, the proposed gate driver has a rapid short circuit protection with soft shut down up to 300 kHz switching frequency. Experimental results for a double-pulse test (DPT) bench is presented, demonstrating the anticipative driving effect, rapid protection and high dv/dt immunity. Moreover, thanks to the good performance and ultra-small size, the gate driver has been applied to a xEV drivetrain inverter.