Resilience Enhancement of the Series-Connected Devices Using PCB Transformers As the Gate Driving System

A Gate Drive for series-connected switches often faces challenges that directly affect the performance and reliability of the system. The most significant challenges include isolation between circuits (between switches and the Gate Drivers), thermal variations, increased circuit size, and ensuring that a fault (such as a short-circuit in one switch) does not impact the operation of other switches. In this paper, a driver circuit for series-connected switches is presented, based on a coreless PCB transformer that offers fault tolerance in the event of a short circuit in one of the switches. The circuit utilizes PCB transformers, which, due to their coreless structure, have lower weight and size compared to traditional transformers, making them suitable for applications with limited space. A key feature of this circuit is its fault tolerance, ensuring that even if one switch experiences a short circuit, the overall circuit operation remains unaffected. This allows the system to continue functioning safely and reliably. The performance of the proposed circuit has been evaluated through Finite element (FE) and PSPICE simulations for a case study consisting of four devices in series.