IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2019 - 32

Recent Advances
in Gate Driver
Integrated Circuits for
Wide-Bandgap FETs
©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/PESHKOV

Manufacturers introduce gate drivers for squeezing
the best performance out of WBG devices
by Ashok Bindra

W

ith the many well-known attributes of
wide-bandgap (WBG) power devices,
especially silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) FETs, the WBG adoption has been growing constantly for the
past few years. Lately, with significant improvements in
reliability and commercial availability, several manufacturers have taken SiC- and GaN-based products to production. Market data from research firms, such as Yole
and IHS, show that this trend will continue to rise during
the next five to 10 years.
While the benefits of using WBG devices are many,
squeezing optimal performance out of this technology has
not been easy. For example, faster switching transitions
and correspondingly lower switching losses result in a

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2019.2928062
Date of publication: 6 September 2019

32

IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

z	September 2019

high change in voltage/change in time (dv/dt) across the
power semiconductor device. This high dv/dt also reflects
across the gate driver, which must withstand it without
affecting the external circuitry. Additionally, the gate
threshold voltage and max gate voltages on SiC and GaN
power transistors are significantly different from silicon
MOSFETs and IGBTs. For instance, SiC FETs require high
supply voltage with narrow range and high drive strength
to realize high efficiency and low losses. In addition, SiC
devices require fast short circuit protection for faster
response. Likewise, GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) drivers must operate at high frequencies and
provide precise voltages with sufficient drive capability
to achieve fast turn-on and turn-off speeds with protection and reliability. These facts make the gate drive circuitry much more critical in WBG power devices. Consequently, without the right gate drivers, WBG-based FETs
will not deliver the desired performance at high switching
2329-9207/19©2019IEEE



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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2019

Contents
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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2019 - Contents
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