CMOS Gate Driver with Integrated Ultra-Accurate and Fast Gate Charge Sensor for Robust and Ultra-Fast Short Circuit Detection of SiC power modules

Abstract

This paper presents an innovative architecture for gate-drivers, offering new solutions to short-circuit issues commonly faced by SiC MOSFET power transistors. Due to their fast switching, SiC power devices require much faster short-circuit detection times than those used for Si MOSFET and IGBTs. A gate driver IC with an integrated ultra-fast and accurate gate current sensor for short-circuit detection is presented. First experimental results demonstrates a low gate current copy error (<1%) with a response time that does not exceed 40ns and a reliable fast short-circuit detection for power modules, within 370ns. This IC is fabricated using NXP Semiconductors' high-voltage SMARTMOS10 130nm CMOS SOI technology.