Adaptive GaN gate driver with inductive feed-forward for highest efficiency (AGaNDrive)

在AGaNDrive中，我们开发和研究了自适应GaN-HEMT栅极驱动概念，用于具有低振铃和受控过冲的快速开关。在电力电子系统中，这将允许具有快速开关的高能效系统，从而实现小型和轻量的无源元件，而不会牺牲EMI性能，也不会对GaN-HEMT施加额外的应力。栅极驱动器将确保在广泛的工作条件下实现这一目标，并使其适应不同的器件。我们的栅极驱动器方法将确保具有电感前馈的快速开关和具有低过冲和振铃的开关，以及由于具有可控电压和输出电阻的开关源而适应不同的操作条件和器件。工作计划将集中于开发具有电感前馈的有源栅极驱动器。栅极驱动器IC输出级和GaN HEMT之间的正向网络用于快速开关，通过阻尼网络扩展以减少振铃和过冲。该共同项目提案的主要目标是为闭环栅极驱动概念找到组合的有源-无源解决方案，该解决方案可补偿制造公差、老化和温度依赖性等因素，以实现最低的GaN HEMT开关损耗，同时仍能实现可接受的EMI性能。有源栅极驱动器反馈的概念将进行调查，使积极的二次侧操作的电感前馈结构和开关源支持。由于环境和负载条件可以在很大范围内变化，直接反馈策略可能会受到高度复杂性的影响，并且可能无法满足所有这些条件。为此，将实施基于可配置瞬态算法的开关源驱动强度控制。一方面，这可以用于适应不同的GaN器件或不同的负载条件。另一方面，这将允许基于算法的自动适应不断变化的操作点条件。将进行系统集成和实验评估，以便在具有同步整流的典型DC/DC转换器应用中进行详细表征和示例实施。

In AGaNDrive we develop and investigate adaptive GaN-HEMT gate driving concepts for very fast switching with low ringing and controlled overshoot. In a power electronic system, this will allow energy-efficient systems with fast switching and thus small and light-weight passive components without sacrificing EMI performance and without imposing additional stress on the GaN-HEMTs. The gate driver will ensure that this is achieved for a wide range of operating conditions and it will adapt itself to different devices. Our gate driver approach will ensure rapid switching with inductive feed-forward and switching with low overshoot and ringing as well as adaption to different operating conditions and devices due to switched sources with controllable voltage and output resistances.The work programme will focus on the development of an active gate driver with an inductive feed-forward network between the output stage of the gate driver IC and the GaN HEMT for fast switching, extended by damping networks to reduce ringing and overshoot. Main objectives of this common project proposal are to find combined active-passive solutions for closed loop gate driving concepts, which compensate amongst others for manufacturing tolerances, ageing and temperature dependency in order to achieve lowest GaN HEMT switching losses while still achieving acceptable EMI performance. Active gate driver feedback concepts will be investigated, enabling active secondary side operation of the inductive feed-forward structure and a switched sources support. Since environmental and load conditions can vary in a wide range, direct feedback strategies might suffer from high complexity and may fail to fulfil all these conditions. For this reason, a configurable transient algorithm-based switched sources driving strength control will be implemented. On one hand, this can be used to adapt for different GaN devices or different load conditions. On the other hand, this will allow to automatically, algorithm-based, adapt to changing operating point conditions. System integration and experimental evaluation will take place for detailed characterization and sample implementation in a typical DC/DC converter application with synchronous rectification.