Enabling Active Thermal Control via an Adaptive Multi-Voltage Gate Driver

Abstract:
This paper presents a gate driver topology enabling active thermal control of SiC MOSFETs. Active thermal control of SiC MOSFETs reduces device stress, thus increasing their lifetime. The proposed gate driver allows dynamic conduction loss manipulation by modulation of the average on-state resistance. The modulation is achieved utilizing a simple low-cost circuit. The theoretical potential of conduction loss manipulation compared to switching loss manipulation is elaborated. The gate driver is tested and validated during converter operation. The results show the driver’s promising loss manipulation capability. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the gate driver’s potential for degradation diagnosis and thermal impedance spectroscopy due to sinusoidal loss modulation.