Design and Analysis of a Voltage Controlled Current Source Gate Driver for an IGBT

Abstract:
This article presents a voltage controlled current source gate driver for an IGBT and compares its performance to a conventional voltage gate driver. Both gate drivers are designed using discrete components and evaluated using a double pulse test bench. The voltage gate driver is tested under different gate resistor conditions, while the proposed current source gate driver is tested under different gate current levels. The results show that the proposed gate driver reduces delay time and energy losses. Additionally, the proposed gate driver is tested under different gate current profiles during the turn-on and turn-off stages, and the results demonstrate that the dIc/dt and dVce/dt can be controlled.