A novel gate driving scheme for high power PWM and bypass switches

Abstract

This paper proposes a new driving scheme for insulated gate bipolar junction transistors (IGBTs) and thyristors used for high power conversion. Most power conversion techniques are based on switching actions so that gate driving scheme and their related circuits have important roles in power conversion. In this paper, fault-tolerant gate driving schemes for power switches and their power supply that utilizes stored energy in the system are presented. Experiments have been carried out with 6500V-rated IGBTs and thyristors to verify the validity of the proposed driving scheme.