The primary specifications to consider when choosing a gate driver are:
- Gate driver voltages – VDD, VHS, and VHB(1)
- VDD refers to the voltage on the positive supply rail (pin often named VDD or VGVDD or VCC).
- VHS (half-bridge drivers only) refers to the high-side source connection to the power switch (pin often named HS or SH). This can also be called the switch node voltage.
- VHB (half-bridge drivers only) refers to the voltage on the high-side bootstrap supply pin (often named HB or BST). VHB is given as VHS + VDD.
- System voltage – VBUS
- VBUS refers to the voltage at the drain of the high-side of a half-bridge (also called DC link voltage).
- Gate driver current – Peak source and sink currents (IPK)
- Sometimes referred to as peak pullup and pulldown currents, or collectively as drive strength.