An Active Voltage Balancing Control Based on Adjusting Driving Signal Time Delay for Series-Connected SiC MOSFETs

Wang, Tao; Lin, Heyun; Liu, Shengsheng

doi:10.1109/jestpe.2019.2944164

Cited by 45 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The effect of the device-to-ground parasitic capacitance on the dynamic voltage sharing for the series-connected devices have already been discussed in the previous studies [13], [14], [34]- [38]. It is still necessary to make a summary of the effect in different switching scenarios, because it is the precondition of the proposed voltage balancing strategies.…”

Section: Root Cause Of the Unbalanced Voltage Sharing In Different Switching Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It should be mentioned that the resolution of the compensation pulsewidth is restricted by the controller minimum clock cycle. As mentioned earlier, the sub-nanosecond unit time step is required if the pulse-width is the only control freedom in the conventional voltage source gate driver [14], [33]. With the proposed approach, the compensation current magnitude can be set at a relatively small value.…”

Section: Voltage Balancing Strategies For Different Switching Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proposed method actually utilizes the starting timing difference to compensate the dv/dt difference for achieving the balanced voltage sharing, so the uneven turn-off energy distribution in the series-connected switches is inevitable. This is a common drawback for the so-called active gate driving delay control method [14], [33]. However, the uneven turn-off energy distribution is significantly less pronounced for higher dv/dt operating conditions, because the dv/dt starting timing difference is much shorter.…”

Section: E Switching Energy Evaluation For the Series-connected Gan Hemts With The Proposed Current Source Gate Drivermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a lot of efforts have been conducted for the voltage balancing of the series-connected IGBT in the past [19]- [25]. In recent years, a lot of researchers began to focus on the voltage balancing of series-connected SiC MOSFETs as well [13], [14], [26]- [28]. Most of the voltage balancing strategies can be grouped as the drain-side approach and the gate-side approach [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The active gate driving control is another main-stream strategy on the gate-side. In [14], [33], the gate driving signals are actively controlled to attain the desired switching timing for the series-connected switches. The unit step in the controller needs to be very small (below 1 ns) to achieve the satisfying voltage balancing, which makes the accuracy of this approach not reliable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Novel Current-Source-Based Gate Driver With Active Voltage Balancing Control for Series-Connected GaN HEMTs

Zhang

Liu

Wang

et al. 2021

IEEE Open J. Power Electron.

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The voltage rating of the commercial Gallium Nitride (GaN) power devices are limited to 600/650 V due to the lateral structure. Stacking the low-voltage rating devices is a straightforward approach to block higher dc link voltage. However, the unbalanced voltage sharing can occur due to the discrepancies in the gate driving loops, the device parameter tolerance and the device-to-ground displacement currents for the series-connected devices in the stack. The voltage imbalance may cause the over-voltage breakdown, in particular for GaN devices, which do not have the avalanche breakdown mechanism. In this article, a novel controllable current source gate driver is proposed, which addresses the voltage imbalance issue of series-connected GaN HEMTs for both hard switching and soft switching scenarios. The proposed current source gate driver controls the device switching timing and the dv/dt with fine accuracy by directly regulating the device gate current. Without the employment of the lossy snubber circuit or the external Miller capacitor, the switching energy and the switching speed are almost not compromised for each individual device. Meanwhile, the current mirror circuits are utilized as the discontinuous pulsed current sources, which produce negligible additional gate driving loss. A series-connected GaN-based multiple pulse tester is built to validate the proposed current source gate driver and the voltage balancing strategies. It is demonstrated that the drain-to-source voltage difference of the series-connected GaN devices is below 10% for different load current and different switching speed (dv/dt) conditions. Moreover, it is found that the series-connected GaN solution can save 33.6% switching energy compared with the benchmark SiC solution under the same operating condition.

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Section: Root Cause Of the Unbalanced Voltage Sharing In Different Switching Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Voltage Balancing Strategies For Different Switching Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: E Switching Energy Evaluation For the Series-connected Gan Hemts With The Proposed Current Source Gate Drivermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A Novel Current-Source-Based Gate Driver With Active Voltage Balancing Control for Series-Connected GaN HEMTs

Zhang

Liu

Wang

et al. 2021

IEEE Open J. Power Electron.

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show abstract

High-Precision Voltage Balancer for Series-Connected SiC MOSFETs Application

Chen,

Luo,

et al. 2024

J. Electr. Eng. Technol.

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Advanced voltage balancing techniques for series-connected SiC-MOSFET devices: A comprehensive survey

Alves,

Lefranc,

Jeannin

et al. 2024

Power Electronic Devices and Components

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An Active Voltage Balancing Control Based on Adjusting Driving Signal Time Delay for Series-Connected SiC MOSFETs

Cited by 45 publications

References 40 publications

A Novel Current-Source-Based Gate Driver With Active Voltage Balancing Control for Series-Connected GaN HEMTs

A Novel Current-Source-Based Gate Driver With Active Voltage Balancing Control for Series-Connected GaN HEMTs

High-Precision Voltage Balancer for Series-Connected SiC MOSFETs Application

Advanced voltage balancing techniques for series-connected SiC-MOSFET devices: A comprehensive survey

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