Electrical engineering

Physics

Transistor

Electrode

MOSFET

Switched-mode power supply

Engineering

Voltage

Voltage regulation

Gate driver

Metallurgy

Materials science

Electronic engineering

Silicon carbide

Quantum mechanics

Capacitance

Transformer

High voltage

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics

High-performance gate drive power supply (GDPS) plays a crucial role in ensuring the reliability and safety of the gate driver for power semiconductor devices. This article focuses on the design of a high-voltage-insulated GDPS for the 10-kV silicon carbide MOSFET in medium-voltage (MV) application. Design considerations, including insulation scheme, high-voltage-insulated transformer design, and load voltage regulation scheme, are proposed. In addition, the performance of the secondary-side-regulated (SSR) GDPS and that of the primary-side-regulated (PSR) GDPS are compared for several aspects, including interwinding capacitance, load voltage regulation rate, conversion efficiency, and hardware complexity. Finally, an SSR GDPS and a PSR GDPS, with an insulation voltage of 20 kV, are built in the lab. The test results demonstrate that the PSR GDPS is more preferable because of lower interwinding capacitance, lower load voltage regulation rate, higher conversion efficiency, and simpler control circuit.

Design Considerations for High-Voltage Insulated Gate Drive Power Supply for 10-kV SiC MOSFET Applied in Medium-Voltage Converter