An Intelligent Three-level Active Gate Driver for Crosstalk Suppression of SiC MOSFET

Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETs are widely used in high efficiency power electronic converters because of their fast switching speed and low conduction losses. However, the fast switching speed of SiC MOSFET exacerbates the crosstalk, which may mis-trigger SiC MOSFET and result in the short circuit fault in phase leg configuration. To avoid crosstalk, an intelligent three-level active gate driver is proposed by improving the conventional drive circuit. Following, the operational principle of the proposed active gate driver is analyzed. And, the effectiveness of the proposed active gate driver on eliminating crosstalk is finally validated by simulation and experiment results, based on a synchronous buck converter using Wolfspeed 1200V SiC MOSFET. The proposed active gate driver can regulate the gate voltage from 0V to -5V when a positive spike occurs, while can raise the gate voltage from -5V to 0V before a negative spike occurs, which make SiC MOSFET always run in the safe operating region and keep the switching speed of SiC MOSFET be not changed. The proposed active gate driver provides a new choice for the application of SiC MOSFET.