A resonant gate-drive circuit with optically-isolated control signal and power supply for fast-switching and high-voltage power semiconductor devices

This paper deals with a resonant gate-drive circuit for fast and high-voltage power semiconductor devices, which is equipped with optical fibers for both gate control signal and dc power supply. A resonant inductor connected with the gate terminal makes it possible to charge or discharge the gate-to-source voltage by using the parallel resonance between the inductor and the input capacitance of the device. The optical fibers can be used to deliver the driving power to the gate drive circuit, because the circuit theoretically causes no power consumption for driving the power device. Moreover, the proposed circuit makes it possible to suppress fluctuations in the gate voltage caused by a rapid change in the drain-to-source voltage. Experimental results are shown to verify the viability of the proposed circuit.