On the Application of Active Gate Drivers in Electric Vehicle Traction Inverters

To combat climate change, a shift towards energy-efficient electric vehicles is necessary. Wide-bandgap semiconductors like SiC enable faster switching, resulting in reduced losses in electric vehicle drive inverters, but also cause increased electromagnetic interference and stress on electric machines. This dissertation investigates the use of active gate drivers to mitigate these effects by controlling the switching speed while accounting for the inverter’s varying operating conditions. The performance of an active gate driver is verified through double pulse tests and compared to conventional drivers and dv/dt filters. The comparison shows that an active gate driver offers advantages over other methods of controlling dv/dt with respect to losses, weight, and volume. A test inverter verifies these findings and demonstrates that the active gate driver also functions in a drive system, controlling switching speed, reducing losses, and limiting EMI.