The main purpose of this application report is to demonstrate a systematic approach to design

high
performance gate drive circuits for high speed switching applications. It is an informative
collection of
topics offering a “one-stop-shopping” to solve the most common design challenges. Therefore, it
should be
of interest to power electronics engineers at all levels of experience.
The most popular circuit solutions and their performance are analyzed, including the effect of
parasitic
components, transient and extreme operating conditions. The discussion builds from simple to
more
complex problems starting with an overview of MOSFET technology and switching operation.
Design
procedure for ground referenced and high side gate drive circuits, AC coupled and transformer
isolated
solutions are described in great details. A special section deals with the gate drive requirements
of the
MOSFETs in synchronous rectifier applications. For more information, see the Overview for
MOSFET and
IGBT Gate Drivers product page.
Several, step-by-step numerical design examples complement the application report.
This document is also available in Chinese: MOSFET 和 IGBT 栅极驱动器电路的基本原理
Contents
1 Introduction
................................................................................................................... 2
2 MOSFET Technology
....................................................................................................... 2
3 Ground-Referenced Gate Drive
.......................................................................................... 15
4 Synchronous Rectifier Drive
..............................................................................................
22
5 High-Side Non-Isolated Gate
Drives..................................................................................... 25
6 AC-Coupled Gate-Drive Circuits
......................................................................................... 36
7 Transformer-Coupled Gate Drives
....................................................................................... 38
8 Summary
.................................................................................................................... 45
9 References
.................................................................................................................. 47
List of Figures
1 Power MOSFET Device Types
............................................................................................ 4
2 Power MOSFET Models
....................................................................................................
6
3 Simplified Clamped Inductive Switching
Model.......................................................................... 9
4 MOSFET Turn-On Time
Intervals........................................................................................ 10
5 MOSFET Turn-Off Time
Intervals........................................................................................ 11
6 Typical Gate Charge vs. Gate-to-Source Voltage
..................................................................... 12
7 Gate-Drive Resonant Circuit
Components.............................................................................. 14
8 Direct Gate-Drive Circuit
.................................................................................................. 15
9 Gate-Drive With Integrated Bipolar Transistors
........................................................................ 17
10 Bipolar Totem-Pole MOSFET Driver
.................................................................................... 17
11 MOSFET-Based Totem-Pole Driver
..................................................................................... 18
12 Simple Turn-Off Speed Enhancement Circuit
.......................................................................... 19
13 Local pnp Turn-Off
Circuit................................................................................................. 20
14 Local NPN Self-Biasing Turn-Off Circuit
................................................................................ 20
15 Improved N-Channel MOSFET-Based Turn-off Circuit
............................................................... 21
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Fundamentals of MOSFET and IGBT Gate Driver Circuits
16 Simplified Synchronous Rectification
Model............................................................................ 22
17 Synchronous Switching Model
........................................................................................... 24
18 Direct Drive for P-Channel
MOSFET.................................................................................... 26
19 Open Collector Drive for PMOS
Device................................................................................. 26
20 Level-Shifted P-Channel MOSFET Driver
.............................................................................. 27
21 Direct Drive of N-Channel
MOSFET..................................................................................... 28
22 Turn-Off of High-Side N-Channel MOSFET
............................................................................ 29
23 Integrated Bootstrap Driver
............................................................................................... 30
24 Integrated Bootstrap Driver
............................................................................................... 31
25 Typical Level-Shifter in High-Voltage Driver IC
........................................................................ 31
26 High Voltage Driver IC for Bootstrap Gate
Drive....................................................................... 32
27 Protecting the SRC
Pin.................................................................................................... 32
28 Bootstrap Bypassing
Example............................................................................................ 33
29 Bootstrap Start-Up Circuit
................................................................................................. 34
30 Capacitive Currents in High-Side Applications
......................................................................... 35
31 Capacitively-Coupled MOSFET Gate Drive
............................................................................
36
32 Normalized Coupling Capacitor Voltage as a Function of Duty
Ratio............................................... 37
33 Single-Ended Transformer-Coupled Gate Drive
....................................................................... 39
34 Driver Output Current With Transformer-Coupled Gate Drive
....................................................... 40
35 DC Restore Circuit in Transformer-Coupled Gate Drive
.............................................................. 41
36 Gate-Drive Transformer Volt-second Product vs. Duty Ratio
........................................................ 42
37 Power and Control Transmission With One
Transformer............................................................. 43
38 Power and Control Transmission With One
Transformer............................................................. 43
39 Push-Pull Type Half-Bridge Gate Drive
................................................................................. 44
40 Push-Pull Type Half-Bridge Gate Drive
................................................................................. 45
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1 Introduction
MOSFET – is an acronym for Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor and it is the key
component in high frequency, high efficiency switching applications across the electronics
industry. It
might be surprising, but FET technology was invented in 1930, some 20 years before the bipolar
transistor. The first signal level FET transistors were built in the late 1950’s while power
MOSFETs have
been available from the mid 70’s. Today, millions of MOSFET transistors are integrated in
modern
electronic components, from microprocessors, through “discrete” power transistors.
The focus of this topic is the gate drive requirements of the power MOSFET in various switch
mode power
conversion applications.
2 MOSFET Technology
The bipolar and the MOSFET transistors exploit the same operating principle. Fundamentally,
both type of
transistors are charge controlled devices, which means that their output current is proportional to
the
charge established in the semiconductor by the control electrode. When these devices are used
as
switches, both must be driven from a low impedance source capable of sourcing and sinking
sufficient
current to provide for fast insertion and extraction of the controlling charge. From this point of
view, the
MOSFETs have to be driven just as “hard” during turn-on and turn-off as a bipolar transistor to
achieve
comparable switching speeds. Theoretically, the switching speeds of the bipolar and MOSFET
devices are
close to identical, determined by the time required for the charge carriers to travel across the
semiconductor region. Typical values in power devices are approximately 20 to 200 picoseconds
depending on the size of the device.
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Fundamentals of MOSFET and IGBT Gate Driver Circuits
The popularity and proliferation of MOSFET technology for digital and power applications is
driven by two
of their major advantages over the bipolar junction transistors. One of these benefits is the ease
of use of
the MOSFET devices in high frequency switching applications. The MOSFET transistors are
simpler to
drive because their control electrode is isolated from the current conducting silicon, therefore a
continuous
ON current is not required. Once the MOSFET transistors are turned-on, their drive current is
practically
zero. Also, the controlling charge and accordingly the storage time in the MOSFET transistors is
greatly
reduced. This basically eliminates the design trade-off between on state voltage drop, which is
inversely
proportional to excess control charge, and turn-off time. As a result, MOSFET technology
promises to use
much simpler and more efficient drive circuits with significant economic benefits compared to
bipolar
devices.
Furthermore, it is especially important to highlight for power applications, that MOSFETs have a
resistive
nature. The voltage drop across the drain source terminals of a MOSFET is a linear function of
the current
flowing in the semiconductor. This linear relationship is characterized by the R DS(on) of the
MOSFET and
known as the on-resistance. On-resistance is constant for a given gate-to-source voltage and
temperature
of the device. As opposed to the -2.2mV/°C temperature coefficient of a p-n junction, the
MOSFETs
exhibit a positive temperature coefficient of approximately 0.7%/°C to 1%/°C. This positive
temperature
coefficient of the MOSFET makes it an ideal candidate for parallel operation in higher power
applications
where using a single device would not be practical or possible. Due to the positive TC of the
channel
resistance, parallel connected MOSFETs tend to share the current evenly among themselves.
This current
sharing works automatically in MOSFETs since the positive TC acts as a slow negative feedback
system.
The device carrying a higher current will heat up more – don’t forget that the drain to source
voltages are
equal – and the higher temperature will increase its RDS(on) value. The increasing resistance will
cause the
current to decrease, therefore the temperature to drop. Eventually, an equilibrium is reached
where the
parallel connected devices carry similar current levels. Initial tolerance in R DS(on) values and
different
junction to ambient thermal resistances can cause significant – up to 30% – error in current
distribution.
nn
n
++
+ Substrate
n– EPI layer
GATE
SOURCE
DRAIN
pp
nn
n
++
+ Substrate
n– EPI layer
GATE
SOURCE
DRAIN
p+ p+
(a)
(b)
n+ n+
Substrate
p
GATE
SOURCE
DRAIN
p
n
(c)
OXIDE
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Fundamentals of MOSFET and IGBT Gate Driver Circuits
2.1 Device Types
Almost all manufacturers have their unique twist on how to manufacture the best power
MOSFETs, but all
of these devices on the market can be categorized into three basic device types. These are
illustrated in