Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices

This paper presents a new gate drive circuit for driving a series string of IGBTs. The proposed quasi active gate control (QAGC) circuit is simple to implement as it composes of only a few passive components in addition to a standard gate driver. No separate isolation power supply is required for th...

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Main Authors: Teerakawanich, Nithiphat, Johnson, Christopher Mark
Format: Article
Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49284/
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author Teerakawanich, Nithiphat
Johnson, Christopher Mark
author_facet Teerakawanich, Nithiphat
Johnson, Christopher Mark
author_sort Teerakawanich, Nithiphat
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper presents a new gate drive circuit for driving a series string of IGBTs. The proposed quasi active gate control (QAGC) circuit is simple to implement as it composes of only a few passive components in addition to a standard gate driver. No separate isolation power supply is required for the upper devices in the stack. The proposed QAGC circuit provides an effective way to drive the power devices and control static and dynamic voltage sharing to the devices at the same time. The theoretical switching operation and the oscillation stability analysis allow criteria for component selection to be established. Limitations of the QAGC circuit is also identified. The modification of the circuit to support more power devices in the series stack is discussed with the aid of the simulation results. The switching operation of the circuit is validated from the experimental results using 2 IGBTs connected in series. The circuit shows a satisfied switching operation with well-controlled dynamic and static voltage sharing and comparable gate voltage between the coupled devices.
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spelling nottingham-492842020-05-04T20:14:27Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49284/ Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices Teerakawanich, Nithiphat Johnson, Christopher Mark This paper presents a new gate drive circuit for driving a series string of IGBTs. The proposed quasi active gate control (QAGC) circuit is simple to implement as it composes of only a few passive components in addition to a standard gate driver. No separate isolation power supply is required for the upper devices in the stack. The proposed QAGC circuit provides an effective way to drive the power devices and control static and dynamic voltage sharing to the devices at the same time. The theoretical switching operation and the oscillation stability analysis allow criteria for component selection to be established. Limitations of the QAGC circuit is also identified. The modification of the circuit to support more power devices in the series stack is discussed with the aid of the simulation results. The switching operation of the circuit is validated from the experimental results using 2 IGBTs connected in series. The circuit shows a satisfied switching operation with well-controlled dynamic and static voltage sharing and comparable gate voltage between the coupled devices. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2014-06 Article PeerReviewed Teerakawanich, Nithiphat and Johnson, Christopher Mark (2014) Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 29 (6). pp. 2705-2714. ISSN 1941-0107 Active gate control power devices series connection gate driver voltage balancing circuit http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6564452/ doi:10.1109/TPEL.2013.2274158 doi:10.1109/TPEL.2013.2274158
spellingShingle Active gate control
power devices
series connection
gate driver
voltage balancing circuit
Teerakawanich, Nithiphat
Johnson, Christopher Mark
Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
title Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
title_full Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
title_fullStr Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
title_full_unstemmed Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
title_short Design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
title_sort design optimization of quasi-active gate control for series-connected power devices
topic Active gate control
power devices
series connection
gate driver
voltage balancing circuit
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49284/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49284/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49284/