T21.4 - Active Gate Driver Power Supply for High-Reliability Applications

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

2:30 PM – 2:50 PM ET

Location: Level Three, A313

Technical Lecture Presenter(s)

JK

Joseph Kozak

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Paper

Co-Author(s)

JR

Juan Ramirez

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
JL

Jesse Lin

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
AO

Allison Orr

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
AM

Alexander Martin

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
HT

Hala Tomey

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

High-reliability aerospace applications require strict derating of gate and drain biases on all power devices. With the integration of SiC MOSFETs, the derating protocols dramatically influence the electrical performance of power electronic circuits. This work introduces an active gate driver power supply to provide a varied gate driving voltage to meet both derating and high-performance operations. A push-pull power converter with a linear pre-regulator was designed to produce two primary (derated and rated) voltages. In this way, the primary power device will normally operate under the derated voltage, but under high-performance, pulsed applications will operate at the rated voltage. The overall reliability is therefore achieved, and electrical losses can be minimized when high-current outputs are necessary.