An Efficient Resonant Gate-Drive Scheme for High-Frequency Applications

Silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) devices have been found to withstand high voltages without showing degradation and can be switched at high frequencies, making them attractive for high-power drives. Although Sic/GaN devices can be operated at high temperature and high frequencies, it is important to develop gate-drive circuits to efficiently turn on and off these devices at high speeds. This paper proposes a resonant gate-drive circuit that aims at reducing the power loss associated with high-frequency switching of power insulated gate bipolar transistors/metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors. The main thrust of the circuit is its application to the motor-drive industry. The proposed circuit is compared with traditional gate-drive circuits from the points of view of power consumption and switching speed. Experimental results are given to illustrate the concept. Test results show that the power consumption using the proposed circuit reduces by a factor of greater than 5 compared with a traditional gate-drive circuit.