A Novel High-Efficiency Gate Drive Circuit for Normally Off-Type GaN FET

作者：Umegami Hirokatsu^*; Hattori Fumiya; Nozaki Yu; Yamamoto Masayoshi; Machida Osamu

来源：IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 2014, 50(1): 593-599.

DOI：10.1109/TIA.2013.2267512

• Gallium nitride
• GaN field-effect transistor (GaN FET)
• gate drive circuit
• gate drive loss analysis
• normally off

A novel gate drive circuit suitable for a next-generation semiconductor [gallium nitride field-effect transistor (GaN FET)] is proposed and discussed in this paper. The GaN FET has an inherent problem in that its loss increases on the reverse conduction time, if it is driven with a conventional gate drive circuit. This active discharged-type gate drive circuit proposed here can decrease the loss, so that the disadvantage is overcome. The gate drive loss is also analyzed, and the results have errors within the range of 5%. The effectiveness of the gate drive circuit is evaluated by applying a low leakage current (LLC) converter. The results show that the proposed circuit can improve the efficiency at all ranges.

• 出版日期2014-2