Novel Tiny 1.2kV SiC MOSFET Gate Driver

The purposes of this research are to design and to prototype a 1.2kV Silicon-Carbide (SiC) MOSFET gate driver which is as compact as possible with only the most necessary components. This tiny gate driver has to perform well at the high switching frequency (up to 100kHz). By focusing only into the 1.2kV SiC MOSFET C2M0080120D and C2M0160120D from Wolfspeed (Cree), the 18.36mm x 24.49mm gate driver was designed based on throughout studying on the MOSFETs’ datasheets and full analysis of the foresee conditions to remove the inessential parts, therefore, reduced the dimensions of the gate driver board and increased its power density. This tiny gate driver topology was inspired by the basic components with the optocoupler and a totem-pole gate driver IC. The passive network was also applied to protect the circuit. Last but not least, the traces of this tiny gate driver were fully analyzed by calculations and optimized to reduce the parasitic inductances.