A GaN HEMT Gate Driver IC with Programmable Turn-on dV/dt Control

A programmable slew rate (SR) control by dynamically modulating power supply of GaN HEMT gate drive is proposed in this paper to optimize EMI and efficiency for power converters. This single-channel gate driver has been fabricated in a $0.35 \mu \mathrm{m}$ HV CMOS process, where the active area is $1160\times 1032 \mu \mathrm{m}^{2}$ and V
DD
regulator ($\approx 937 \times 382 \mu \mathrm{m}^{2}$) has also been implemented to ensure a wide power supply range (6-18V). The proposed high-speed circuit can work up to 2MHz with transmission delay of 11ns and a small gate-drive voltage droop (<0.2V). Moreover, flexible programmable turn-on dV/dt control, which changes by more than 5 times with the help of external resistors, is provided for EMI optimization. This enhancement technique with fast gate drive is especially suited for power module with GaN devices from 100V to 650V voltage range.