A Programmable Gate Driver for Power Semiconductor Switching Loss Characterization

This paper presents a programmable gate driver unit for power semiconductors such as IGBTs and MOSFETs which allows to adjust the gate voltage and gate resistance for turn-on and turn-off of the power semiconductor independently. As properties of the gate driver have a major influence on the switching behavior of power semiconductors and thus on switching losses and EMI, it is highly desirable to characterize the influence of gate driver parameters on the switching behavior of power semiconductors experimentally. Contrary to other approaches, the presented circuit is optimized for device characterization in double pulse or similar experiments. The gate voltage range covers most gate-voltage controlled power semiconductors, including GaN and SiC MOSFETs. An internal connection of multiple output stages allows to vary the effective gate resistance over a wide range. As the gate driver parameters can be set remotely during operation, an automated characterization of the gate-driver-dependent switching behavior is enabled.