A Two-Stage Turn-On Gate Driver for SiC MOSFET with Short-Circuit Current Suppression

The short-circuit tolerance of silicon carbide MOSFETs (SiC MOSFETs) is relatively limited, leading to increased demands on the response speed and protective capability of short-circuit detection and protection circuits. This paper proposes a two-stage gate drive strategy for suppressing short-circuit currents through the reduction of gate voltage, which effectively limits the development of short-circuit currents before protective measures are initiated. Simulation validation was performed using the 1700V / 310A SiC power module CAS310M17BM3. The results indicate that the proposed drive scheme can reduce short-circuit losses by 73.5\%, shorten the protection response time by 60\%, and also decrease turn-on losses under normal operating conditions.