To eliminate the need to redesign digital gate driver (DGD) ICs for each of a wide variety of power devices, the world’s first variable gate current (IG) range DGD (VIR-DGD) ICs with variable IG range and steps are proposed. The innovation of VIR-DGD ICs is that a variable resistor on PCB allows one-bit IG (I1BIT) to be freely varied, thereby maintaining 6-bit controllability of DGD at all times for a wide variety of power devices. A 6-bit VIR-DGD IC with variable maximum IG from 0.51 A to 5.1 A and I1BIT from 8.1 mA to 81 mA has been developed. The trade-off problem between loss and noise during turn-on has been successfully solved by an active gate driving using the VIR-DGD IC for two types of IGBTs with twice the rated current.
.jpg "Haoxi Zhou, Master (he/him/his) photo")