A Gate Drive Circuit for GaN GIT Power Semiconductors with a Minimal Number of Components

Abstract:
Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices have emerged as a promising solution to meet the demand for power electronics converters, which are power-dense, low-weight, and cost-effective. This paper presents an innovative gate drive circuit for application in GaN Gate Injection Transistors (GIT). The benefits of the proposed circuit are a low component count, generation of negative gate drive without using a bipolar power supply, ability to adjust the voltage and current transients in the gate drive circuit, and ease of scalability for parallel devices.