SLLA472A March   2020  – February 2022 ISO5852S , ISO5852S-EP , ISO5852S-Q1 , LM5106

 

  1.   Trademarks
  2. 1Introduction
  3. 2Current Boost With BJT Totem Pole Stage
  4. 3Current Boost With Saturated MOSFET Totem Pole Stage
  5. 4Implementation Details
  6. 5Performance Results
  7. 6Comparison of the Two Methods
  8. 7Conclusion
  9. 8References
  10. 9Revision History

1 Comparative Analysis of Two Different Methods for Gate-Drive Current Boosting

Increasing drive current for switching devices is a common requirement in high-power converters. As the size of the switching devices (IGBT, MOSFET) increases, there is a need to drive them with larger current for faster switching. There is also a need to drive multiple devices in parallel to reduce conduction losses at higher currents. TI offers high-current gate drivers with typical 10-A drive strength, such as the UCC5390 and UCC21732, which is sufficient for many high-power modules. In some cases, upwards of 20-A peak current is required and in these cases, external buffers should be used. This decouples the load from the driver integrated circuit (IC) and can provide thermal benefits in addition to optimized switching efficiency for the power switch.