Monolithic GaN-Based Gate Driver With On-Chip Adaptive On-Time Controller and Negative Current Slope Detector to Prevent Shoot-Through

• Published in: IEEE solid-state circuits letters 2023, Vol.6, p.217-220
• Main Authors: Lin, Shu-Yung, Lin, Ssu-Yu, Hung, Sheng-Hsi, Wang, Tz-Wun, Li, Ching-Ho, Go, Chang-Lin, Huang, Shao-Chang, Chen, Ke-Horng, Zheng, Kuo-Lin, Lin, Ying-Hsi, Lin, Shian-Ru, Tsai, Tsung-Yen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptive on-time (AOT); Controllers; Detectors; diode turn-on voltage compensated gate driver; Efficiency; Electric potential; Gallium nitride; gallium nitride (GaN); Gallium nitrides; Gate drivers; Logic gates; MODFETs; negative current slope (NCS) detector; Voltage; Voltage control
• ISSN: 2573-9603; 2573-9603
• DOI: 10.1109/LSSC.2023.3301151

This letter proposes a monolithic gallium nitride (GaN) primary-side controller for a flyback converter, consisting mainly of a negative current slope (NCS) detector to suppress shoot-through problems caused by GaN process defects. Moreover, the proposed adaptive on-time (AOT) controller can adapt to changes in the input voltage and limit the maximum allowable switching frequency to achieve high efficiency. Furthermore, the diode turn-on voltage compensated gate driver also enhances the ability to drive the on-chip 650-V power GaN switch. Therefore, the proposed fully integrated GaN-based chip can improve the efficiency by 2% as the deadtime is reduced from 40 to 7 ns. The proposed gate driver has a peak efficiency of 96.2% and a maximum current of 6 A.