Active Gate Driver Power Supply for High-Reliability Applications

High-reliability aerospace applications require strict derating of gate and drain biases on all power devices. With the integration of SiC MOSFETs, the derating protocols dramatically influence the electrical performance of power electronic circuits. This work introduces an active gate driver power supply to provide a varied gate driving voltage to meet both derating and high-performance operations. A push-pull power converter with a linear pre-regulator was designed to produce two discrete (derated and rated) output voltages. In this way, the power device will normally operate under the derated voltage, but under high-performance, pulsed applications will operate at the rated voltage. The overall reliability is therefore achieved, and electrical losses can be minimized when high-current outputs are necessary.