Resonant Gate Driver with Wide Range Adjustment of Driving Speed

Resonant gate driver (RGD) is the more advanced solution to drive SiC MOSFETs in high frequency applications with driver loss reduction and power density improvement. The driving speed of RGD is mainly determined by the resonance mode and resonant inductor, the options of which are relatively limited and make the smooth adjustment of driving speed not quite easy. In this paper, a new driving speed adjustment approach is proposed by changing the average driving current in driving transition. The acceleration of driving speed is achieved through inductor current pre-charging and the reduction of driving speed is realized through multi-pulse resonant driving. A full-bridge 1/4 period RGD prototype is built for verification. The baseline of driving time is 250 ns when initial inductor current is zero, and the measured driving times using the proposed method vary from 80 ns to 510 ns. Different driving speeds for turn-on and turn-off transients are also realized.