AI-tailored Slew-rate Gate Drive Scheme for Low Emission Multilevel Inverter

The growth of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) in the automotive landscape has propelled the need for high efficiency and increased payload for the vehicle design. This leads to systems and components being packed in the immediate vicinity of each other, disregarding the coupling through the voltage or frequency content. Thus, an innovative approach to balance the demands of increased propulsion system efficiency enabling long driving range with an Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) oversight is indispensable. In RF-zoning based design philosophy, high voltage (HV) zones are noisier due to power electronic devices and, low voltage (LV) zones are lower in noise so that signals can survive. The quest for efficiency in confined spaces involves the incorporation of high speed power electronics and the introduction of wide-bandgap (WBG) technologies. However, WBG multi-level inverters (MLI) have a non-uniform switching event distribution among the power semiconductors, which brings to the proposal of this study of optimally administering the slew-rate among all the switches. Aim of this study is thus to address the intricate interplay of factors within the BEV electromagnetic environment by investigating the application of MLI based on WBG switches and optimized gate-driver design, while achieving superior EMI performance and enhanced energy efficiency. The research delves into a system-level loss distribution analysis, mapping switching and conduction losses. A unique gate driver design, which is also tuned using artificial intelligence (AI), is proposed for each switch, with quantified improvements in both EMI magnitude and switching losses.