New Industry Products

Gate Drivers for MOSFETs or IGBTs in Half-Bridge or Full-Bridge

February 29, 2016 by Jeff Shepard

The DGD21xx series of six half-bridge and six high/low-side 600V gate drivers introduced by Diodes Incorporated provides a simple means of switching power MOSFETs and IGBTs in half- and full-bridge configurations. Target applications include driving motors in white goods, industrial automation systems and battery-operated vehicles such as eBikes and drones. They are also well-suited for power supplies above 600W and inverters in fuel cell, solar and wind power applications.

A floating high-side driver enables bootstrap operation up to 600V. This allows these devices to be used on the high-voltage rails commonly found in motor drives and power supplies. A high peak-current drive capability ensures the MOSFET or IGBT can switch quickly, delivering greater efficiency under high frequency operation. Inputs that are logic-compatible down to 3.3V further simplify the interface between the controller and the power switches.

To protect the MOSFET/IGBT from shoot-through, all devices have matched delays and the half-bridge drivers feature a pre-set internal dead time. Additional self-protection features include Schmitt inputs to avoid false triggering, a gate drive that is tolerant to negative transients arising from high dV/dt switching, and under-voltage lockout (UVLO) to avoid malfunction under low supply voltage conditions.

The DGD21xx series are supplied in SO-8 and SO-16 packages, providing pin-compatibility with other sources.