A resonant MOSFET gate driver with efficient energy recovery

High frequency pulse-width modulation (PWM) converters generally suffer from excessive gate drive loss. This paper presents a resonant gate drive circuit that features efficient energy recovery at both charging and discharging transitions. Following a brief introduction of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) gate drive loss, this paper discusses the gate drive requirements for high frequency PWM applications and common shortcomings of existing resonant gate drive techniques. To overcome the apparent disparity, a new resonant MOSFET gate drive circuit is then presented. The new circuit produces low gate drive loss, fast switching speed, clamped gate voltages, immunity to false trigger and has no limitation on the duty cycle. Experimental results further verify its functionality.