High performance active gate drive for high power IGBTs

This paper deals with an active gate drive (AGD) technology for high power IGBTs. It is based on an optimal combination of several requirements necessary for good switching performance under hard switching conditions. The scheme specifically combines together the slow drive requirements for low noise and switching stress and the fast drive requirements for high speed switching and low switching energy loss. The gate drive can also effectively dampen oscillations during low current turn-on transients in the IGBT. This paper looks at the conflicting requirements of the conventional gate drive circuit design and demonstrates, using experimental results, that the proposed three-stage active gate drive technique can be an effective solution.