A Virtual Prototyping Tool of a Power Transmission Function for IGBT Gate Drivers with High Insulated Voltage Capabilities

Abstract:
For the operation of the semiconductor components in the medium or high voltage converter applications, the high insulation system of their PWM control signals as well as their power transmission function is required. This paper details the design methodology to optimize a power supply function for insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) gate driver with high insulated voltage capabilities by the help of a virtual prototyping tool. To achieve this, a dc-to-dc full-bridge series-series (FB-SS) resonant converter with a high air gap pot core transformer is selected (the air gap value can be selected from 1 mm to 3 mm). This high air gap transformer (or a loosely coupled transformer (k)) is used for high insulation voltage capability systems. The objective of this study is to optimize the geometric elements of the transformer and the associated electrical components in the FB-SS topology. Maximize the converter efficiency (etacon) is the main objective of the proposed optimization. Therefore, optimization results are proposed: the converter efficiency as a function of output power and insulation thickness for different pot core diameters. Finally, experimental results are compared to the simulation ones to validate this virtual prototyping tool.