Real-Time Network Protocol for Gate Driver Communication and Control

Communication inside a power converter could benefit various ways. If established between a local controller and a gate driver, it creates hardware abstraction, meaning that the behavior of power stage terminals is independent of hardware design. Flexibility is another important communication benefit since different data could be exchanged between a controller and the gate drivers. Since modern gate drivers are equipped with different sensors for protection purposes, combined with communication, data sampled from gate driver sensors could be reused for control purposes, allowing for the implementation of distributed control. This paper gives an example of a communication protocol developed between gate drivers and local controller in a cell of a modular multilevel converter. Communication is developed on the low-cost physical layer but with high synchronization accuracy based on clock signal sharing and Precise Time Protocol.