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Gallium nitride high electron mobility transistors (GaN-HEMTs) have low capacitances and can achieve low switching losses in applications where hard turn-on is required. Low switching losses imply a fast switching; consequently, fast voltage and current transients occur. However, these transients can be limited by package and layout parasitics even for highly optimized systems. Furthermore, a fast switching requires a fast charging of the input capacitance, hence a high gate current.
In this paper, the switching speed limitations of GaN-HEMTs due to the common source inductance and the gate driver supply voltage are discussed. The turn-on behavior of a GaN-HEMT is simulated and the impact of the parasitics and the gate driver supply voltage on the switching losses is described in detail. Furthermore, measurements are performed with an optimized layout for a drain-source voltage of 500 V and a drain-source current up to 60 A.
Modern power semiconductor devices have low capacitances and can therefore achieve very fast switching transients under hard-switching conditions. However, these transients are often limited by parasitic elements, especially by the source inductance and the parasitic capacitances of the power semiconductor. These limitations cannot be compensated by conventional gate drivers. To overcome this, a novel gate driver approach for power semiconductors was developed. It uses a transformer which accelerates the switching by transferring energy from the source path to the gate path.
Experimental results of the novel gate driver approach show a turn-on energy reduction of 78% (from 80 μJ down to 17 μJ) with a drain-source voltage of 500V and a drain current of 60 A. Furthermore, the efficiency improvement is demonstrated for a hard-switching boost converter. For a switching frequency of 750 kHz with an input voltage of 230V and an output voltage of 400V, it was possible to extend the output power range by 35%(from 2.3kW to 3.1 kW), due to the reduction of the turn-on losses, therefore lowering the junction temperature of the GaN-HEMT.
A gate driver approach is presented for the reduction of turn-on losses in hard switching applications. A significant turn-on loss reduction of up to 55% has been observed for SiCMOSFETs. The gate driver approach uses a transformer which couples energy from the power path back into the gate path during switching events, providing increased gate driver current and thereby faster switching speed.
The gate driver approach was tested on a boost converter running at a switching frequency up to 300 kHz. With an input voltage of 300V and an output voltage of 600V, it was possible to reduce the converter losses by 8% at full load. Moreover, the output power range could be extended by 23% (from 2.75kW to 3.4 kW) due to the reduction of the turn-on losses.