An Adaptive Dead-Time Control Method for Gate Drivers Using Gate Current Measurement Enabling ZVS in High Frequency HV DC-DC Converters

IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems proceedings, pp. 1–5

Abstract

This work presents a novel zero-voltage-switching technique and demonstrates its feasibility in two exemplary DC-DC buck converters. The proposed system makes use of the nonlinearity of the reverse transfer capacitance to infer the voltage across the switch. The proposed method does not require additional expensive high-voltage components at the switch node, without resorting to bandwidth and voltage-limited high-voltage processes. The concept allows for full integration in low-cost, high-performance CMOS nodes, thereby enabling modern gate drivers with additional intelligent digital feature-sets to be used in HV environments. The technique is demonstrated to work using 650 V GaN and SiC switches across wide ranges of dead-times, regulating these from hundreds down to single nanoseconds.

Authors 6

1. Léon Weihs Aachen Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory (IAS)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory,Aachen,Germany,D-52074

2. Jan Grobe Aachen Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory (IAS)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory,Aachen,Germany,D-52074

3. Linus Rimpl Aachen Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory (IAS)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory,Aachen,Germany,D-52074

4. Tobias Zekorn Aachen Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory (IAS)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory,Aachen,Germany,D-52074

5. Ralf Wunderlich Aachen Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory (IAS)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory,Aachen,Germany,D-52074

6. Stefan J. Heinen Aachen Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory (IAS)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Integrated Analog Circuits and RF Systems Laboratory,Aachen,Germany,D-52074