Universal Active Gate Driver IC With Closed-Loop Timing Control and Gate-Sensing Technique for Silicon Carbide Power Devices

Silicon carbide (SiC) power <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mosfet</small>s provide superior device characteristics, increasing their demand in high-power systems. However, the advantages of SiC also cause switching challenges, including overshoot, oscillation, and electromagnetic interference (EMI). This article introduces a universal active gate driver (AGD) IC to mitigate these issues and achieve a better tradeoff between overshoot and switching losses (<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">E</i><sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">LOSS</sub>). The AGD IC integrates a gate-sensing technique, eliminating the need for external sensing components, and dynamically adjusts driving strength during switching operations, effectively suppressing overshoot, oscillation, and EMI. Moreover, the proposed driver can automatically drive different SiC power devices, enhancing its utility flexibility. Validation using the 0.18-<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">μ</i>m BCD process demonstrates the functionality of the proposed AGD, achieving notable reductions of 48.7% and 18.8% in turn-<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on</small> and turn-<sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">off</small> switching losses, respectively, compared to conventional gate drivers under similar current and voltage overshoot. These findings confirm the advancements of the proposed AGD in improving the efficiency and reliability of SiC-based power management systems.