Evaluation of Active Current Source Gate Driver for IGBT Module Switching Transitions

This paper has discussed the potential of advanced active current source gate drive for the high power insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules. Apart from the optimal design of semiconductor fabrication, packaging, and converter layout, the performance of an IGBT module primarily relies on its gate drive strategy with advanced control. An advanced gate current driving strategy can reliably improve the switching performance of the IGBT module by extending the operational envelope and exploiting the full potential of a power semiconductor device. A comparative study of three candidates of the current source (CS) circuits, including Zener diode based CS, current mirror structure CS and Op-Amp based CS), has been conducted and experimentally examined in both of simulation and practice. Their pros and cons have been discussed in the context of active current source gate drive application.