Loss performance and efficiency comparison of resonant gate drivers

Abstract

In an effort to reduce switching and gate-drive losses in power converters when the energy density is increased by increasing the switching frequency, various resonant gate drivers (RGDs) based on a current source have been proposed to drive metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors in low-voltage high-current power converters. The resonant gate drivers enable high efficiency owing to energy recovery and the reduction of switching losses. Recently, many studies have been performed on the design of new topologies and loss analyses. Despite numerous proposed studies on RGDs, a comparative study based on a theoretical analysis has not been carried out. In this paper, a theoretical loss analysis in terms of the conduction, switching and gate-drive losses is presented according to the operation stages. In particular, the conduction loss has been expressed in terms of a general loss model that can generally applied to all topologies. Five RGD topologies are evaluated for their efficiency performance with analytical expressions and features based on several operating conditions.