Constant-Current Gate Driver for GaN HEMTs Applied to Resonant Power Conversion

Héctor Sarnago, Óscar Lucía, Iulian O. Popa and José M. Burdío
Additional contact information
Héctor Sarnago: Department of Electronic Engineering and Communications, University of Zaragoza, I3A., 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
Óscar Lucía: Department of Electronic Engineering and Communications, University of Zaragoza, I3A., 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
Iulian O. Popa: Department of Electronic Engineering and Communications, University of Zaragoza, I3A., 50018 Zaragoza, Spain
José M. Burdío: Department of Electronic Engineering and Communications, University of Zaragoza, I3A., 50018 Zaragoza, Spain

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-10

Abstract: New semiconductor technology is enabling the design of more reliable and high-performance power converters. In particular, wide bandgap (WBG) silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) technologies provide faster switching times, higher operating temperature, and higher blocking voltage. Recently, high-voltage GaN devices have opened the design window to new applications with high performance and cost-effective implementation. However, one of the main drawbacks is that these devices require accurate base current control to ensure safe and efficient operation. As a consequence, the base drive circuit becomes more complex and the final efficiency is decreased. This paper presents an improved gate driver circuit for GaN devices based on the use of a constant current regulator (CCR). The proposed circuit achieves constant current regardless of the operating conditions, solving variations with temperature, aging and operating conditions that may degrade the converter performance. Besides, the proposed circuit is reliable and cost-effective, being applicable to a wide range of commercial, industrial and automotive applications. In this paper, its application to a zero-voltage switching resonant inverter for domestic induction heating was performed to prove the feasibility of this concept.

Keywords: resonant power conversion; gallium nitride; wide bandgap devices; inverter; induction heating (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2377/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/9/2377/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:9:p:2377-:d:541410

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().