A resonant gate-drive circuit capable of high-frequency and high-efficiency operation

This paper deals with a new resonant gate-drive circuit for power MOSFETs. The proposed gate-drive circuit is characterized by a resonant inductor connected in series to the gate terminal of the MOSFET. It is possible to charge or discharge the input capacitance of the MOSFET by using the series resonance between the inductor and the input capacitance. Experimental results are shown to verify the viability of the resonant gate-drive circuit. As a result, the proposed resonant gate-drive circuit reduces its power consumption by a factor of ten, compared with a conventional one. A high-frequency MOSFET inverter driven by the proposed gate-drive circuits exhibits a high efficiency more than 99% at a 360-kHz and 1-kW operation.