New chip design cuts power loss in electric vehicle converters
Researchers have developed autonomous gate drivers that eliminate energy waste during power switching in EV charging systems and industrial equipment. The technology, tested at 400-volt capacity, reduces heat generation and improves efficiency—lowering operating costs for manufacturers and extending battery life for vehicle makers.
Originaltitel: Autonomous Gate Drivers for TCM-Based Soft-Switched Converters: Design Approach and Experimental Validation
<p>This paper presents a soft-switched buck converter using Autonomous Gate Drivers (AGDs) for power electronic converters. Operating at a 400 V DC-link, typical of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and industrial systems, the converter achieves Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) during turn-on and turn-off via AGD circuitry and optimized snubber capacitance. Operating in Triangular Current Mode (TCM), the converter utilizes inductor current ripple to enable ZVS. Experimental results confirm reliable soft-switching and suppression of voltage overshoot under realistic conditions. While the validation uses a buck converter, the proposed AGDs are directly applicable to more complex converters, including three-phase inverters with sinusoidal reference currents, relevant to EVs, renewable energy, and industrial drives. This work demonstrates a scalable solution for reducing switching losses and improving efficiency in advanced high-voltage converters.</p>