Design and analysis of an enhanced MOSFET gate driver for pulsed power applications

This paper describes a novel MOSFET gate driver circuit design for pulsed power application. It is shown that MOSFET switching speed can be enhanced by using an energised inductor as a high current source in series with the gate terminal of a power MOSFET. This topology demonstrates switching speeds of less than 10ns for MOSFETs with high input gate capacitance. It is also shown that by increasing the current in the gate drive and with an optimised layout, a single gate driver can be used to drive multiple parallel connected MOSFETs synchronously without compromising their performance. The circuit design is analysed and experimental results presented when operating at an instantaneous power of 25 kW.