[MUSIC PLAYING] This is the final part of this series of videos on how to design

multi-kilowatt converters for electric vehicles. Now in this part, we're going to
take a look at MOSFET gate drivers. And also, at the end of this session, there
will be some references for further information.

Gate driver transformers are in competition with solid state IC solutions. So it's
worthwhile to take a look at their advantages and disadvantages. Gate driver
transformers offer primary to secondary isolation. This makes it easy for them to
be used to drive high side MOSFETs. Isolation also allows a controller located on
the secondary side of the PSU to drive primary side MOSFETs directly.

They are deceptively simple, at least in theory. Np turns ON the primary. Ns turns
ON the secondary. They're not carefree, however. They must be prevented from
saturating. And there's a trade-off of primary to secondary coupling. Good coupling
implies a large primary to secondary capacitance. And the high dv/dt rates needed
for good MOSFET switching can cut low Common Mode currents into the controller and
disturb its operation.

Poor coupling implies large leakage inductance, which leads to voltage spikes on
the windings, as the primary is switched ON and OFF. Additional components may be
needed to suppress these effects.

They do have zero quiescent current. This is an advantage when no-load power
dissipation is important. Don't forget, however, that the driver used to drive the
primary of the transformer will not have zero quiescent current. The transformer
doesn't have any startup delay. And there is no bootstrap capacitor to charge, as
there is with the usual high side drivers. They are extremely robust and reliable,
if properly designed.

Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages. They need a fairly high external
component count, diodes and so on, needed to deal with leakage inductance spikes
and common load currents. They are inherently bulkier than an IC solution,
especially their height. They also need drivers to drive the primaries and are
prone to saturation if not driven correctly.

In general, transformer gate drivers are an older technology which is being

replaced by newer IC devices. So a MOSFET gate appears as a capacitor flow to the
driver connected to it. The main aim of MOSFET switching is to turn it ON and OFF
as quickly as possible by charging a discharge at the gate capacitance in as short
a time as possible. Peak gate currents up to 5 amps are not unusual. Although the
optimum drive level will depend on the MOSFET being driven and on the application.

A driver's task is to turn the MOSFET ON and OFF quickly, and obviously, to keep it
OFF when it is supposed to be OFF, and keep it ON, when it is supposed to be ON.
This apparently simple task hides many subtle effects.

A driver may or may not need to cross an isolation barrier. Does it have sufficient
noise immunity to prevent false triggering? A simple low side driver has both its
input and output referenced to the same ground. High side drivers use a bootstrap
technique to drive MOSFETs in the high side of bridge circuits, the upper devices
in the phase shifted full bridge, for example.

The driver's behavior when its VCC rail falls below it's UVLO levels, how does it
stop operating? And does it leave the MOSFET it is driving in a quote, "safe"
state. How long does a driver need after its VCC rail rises above the turn on
threshold before it starts to operate? Does it have an enable signal? These are all
questions to be answered before choosing the driver IC.

So the UCC21520-Q1 is a two-channel isolated gate driver which can be used by a

secondary site controller to drive the primary side MOSFETs of a phase shift full
bridge. This device can be used to drive both high side and low side MOSFETs, low
propagation delays. And especially good matching of the propagation delays means
that the switching pattern issued by the controller, that is, OUTA, OUTB, OUTC,
OUTD in the case of the UCC28951-Q1 is not distorted before it is used to turn the
switches ON and OFF.

An alternative method of driving the primary/sec MOSFETs is shown here. The

ISO7740F-Q1 is a digital isolator device. It takes a 5-volt signal at its inputs.
So some attenuation of the 10-volt OUTX signals from the UCC28951-Q1 is needed, a
resistive divider for example. If this device is used, it's important to use the F
option with the outputs default low in the event of a loss of input signal.

Separate MOSFET drivers are needed to interface the digital signals from the
isolator with the MOSFETs. This is not always a disadvantage. Separating the
isolation and driver functions means that the drivers can be placed close to the
MOSFETs without having the constraints due to the primary secondary isolation
barrier and the associated PCB creepage and clearance distances.

MOSFETs are used widely as synchronous rectifiers. They can easily be configured
with their sources connected to the low output. And this makes driving them
relatively easy. Here I'm showing a UCC27524A1-Q1 driver which takes the gate drive
signals from the controller and turns the MOSFETs on and off as appropriate. As
always, typically, our large, low RDS(on) MOSFETs with a high gate capacitance and
large currents are needed to turn them ON and OFF rapidly.

So here are links to some of the many design resources available from TI. And here
is a list of useful references where you will find further information about
various aspects of power supply design.

This is the final video in this training series. Thank you very much for your
attention. And please feel free to email me with any comments or questions that you
may have.