Liquid Nitrogen Immersed and Noise Tolerant Gate Driver for Cryogenically Cooled Power Electronics Applications

Power electronics converters are envisioned to offer increased power density and higher efficiencies when operated at extreme low temperatures. Increased power efficiency is primarily attributed to reduced conduction losses, whereas higher power density can be achieved by capitalizing upon improved switching performance. Both the features rely upon the performance of switching devices, which play an integral role in performance of any converter. Modern wideband gap (WBG) device GaN has been shown to offer the optimal performance at cryogenic temperatures, but such devices are extremely sensitive to gate driving architectures. To achieve the best switching characteristics, GaN devices require a strong gate driver integrated circuit (IC) placed as close to the device as possible. Therefore, this paper designs a complete gate driver board which works fine at cryogenic temperature (CT, 77 K) and was placed next to a GaN switching device. The designed gate driver board has been successfully tested together with a double pulse test setup at 77 K to verify its operation.