High-current gate-driver devices are required in switching power applications for a variety of reasons. In order to effect fast switching of power devices and reduce associated switching-power losses, a powerful gate-driver device employs between the PWM output of control devices and the gates of the power semiconductor devices. Further, gate-driver devices are indispensable when having the PWM controller device directly drive the gates of the switching devices is sometimes not feasible. With advent of digital power, this situation is often encountered because the PWM signal from the digital controller is often a 3.3-V logic signal which cannot effectively turn on a power switch. A level-shifting circuitry is needed to boost the 3.3-V signal to the gate-drive voltage (such as 12 V) in order to fully turn on the power device and minimize conduction losses. Traditional buffer-drive circuits based on NPN/PNP bipolar transistors in totem-pole arrangement, being emitter-follower configurations, prove inadequate with digital power because they lack level-shifting capability. Gate-driver devices effectively combine both the level-shifting and buffer-drive functions. Gate-driver devices also find other needs such as minimizing the effect of high-frequency switching noise by locating the high-current driver physically close to the power switch, driving gate-drive transformers and controlling floating power-device gates, reducing power dissipation and thermal stress in controller devices by moving gate-charge power losses into the controller.

Finally, emerging wide band-gap power-device technologies such as GaN based switches, which can support very high switching frequency operation, are driving special requirements in terms of gate-drive capability. These requirements include operation at low V_DD voltages (5 V or lower), low propagation delays, tight delay matching and availability in compact, low-inductance packages with good thermal capability.

In summary gate-driver devices are extremely important components in switching power combining benefits of high-performance, low-cost, component-count, board-space reduction, and simplified system design.