Communication using the Isolated Power Supply of Gate Drivers for SiC Semiconductors Monitoring applications

Inhalt:
Silicon Carbide power semiconductors devices such as SiC MOSFETs are more and more used in power converters. However, the maturity of the SiC technology is moderate in the field of power electronics. Many research works are in progress to determine the behavior of SiC MOSFETs during ageing. Some studies on reliability identified parameters which could be used as ageing indicators. The on-line monitoring of these parameters requires measurement circuits and data exchange through the galvanic isolation of the gate driver. In this paper, a new bidirectional data transmission method is proposed for gate drivers used for driving 1.2kV SiC MOSFETs. Data exchange in gate drivers should enable the dynamic parametrization of the device and the monitoring data feedback. The proposed method enables energy transmission and bidirectional communication on a single power supply transformer. Experimental results are provided demonstrating 1Mb/s for TxD and 16kb/s for RxD. The targeted application is the health monitoring of power SiC MOSFET using the gate drive system.