A Novel Driving Current Control Approach in Enhanced Current-Source Gate Driver

Active gate drivers (AGDs) are popular because of their capability to flexibly control the switching behavior of power transistors. State-of-the-art AGDs need to adopt extensive driving switches, resistors, or additional voltage or current sources, which significantly increase the cost, size, and complexity of gate drivers. To overcome this bottleneck, an enhanced inductor-based current-source gate driver (ECSGD) with well-controlled gate driving current and fast driving current transition is proposed in this letter. Driving current is controlled by switching between different resonant networks within a presettled hysteresis window to solve the poor gate driving current regulation limitation of conventional inductor-based current-source gate drivers. Driving current transition speed is also accelerated by the internal supply voltage boosting function. The design prototype demonstrates a driving current control of 2 A with a hysteresis window of 0.3 A. The driving current transition time is shortened by more than 30% with positive driving voltage boosted from 15 to 25 V. Hence, the ECSGD can be used as an AGD with a simple structure, high control accuracy, and fast response speed.