Design Optimization of Quasi-Active Gate Control for Series-Connected Power Devices

Teerakawanich, Nithiphat; Johnson, Christopher Mark

Abstract

This paper presents a new gate drive circuit for driving a series string of insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The proposed quasi-active gate control (QAGC) circuit is simple to implement as it consists of only a few passive components in addition to a standard gate driver. No separate isolation power supply is required for the upper devices in the stack. The proposed QAGC circuit provides an effective way to drive the power devices and control static and dynamic voltage sharing to the devices at the same time. The theoretical switching operation and the oscillation stability analysis allow criteria for component selection to be established. Limitations of the QAGC circuit are also identified. The modification of the circuit to support more power devices in the series stack is discussed with the aid of the simulation results. The switching operation of the circuit is validated from the experimental results using two IGBTs connected in series. The circuit shows an excellent switching operation with well-controlled dynamic and static voltage sharing and comparable gate voltage between the coupled devices. © 2013 IEEE.

Citation

Teerakawanich, N., & Johnson, C. M. (2014). Design Optimization of Quasi-Active Gate Control for Series-Connected Power Devices. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 29(6), 2705-2714. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2013.2274158

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jul 19, 2013
• Publication Date: 2014-06
• Deposit Date: Jan 23, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 23, 2018
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
• Print ISSN: 0885-8993
• Electronic ISSN: 1941-0107
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 2705-2714
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPEL.2013.2274158
• Keywords: Active gate control, power devices, series connection, gate driver, voltage balancing circuit
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/995749
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6564452/
• Additional Information: (c)2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works