Low-Power Inverter Drives for High-Power Environments

There is increasing demand for a new generation of smart gate-driver couplers that combine compact, power-efficient and cost-effective protection techniques and active Miller clamping all in a single device that simplifies design, saves component count, and minimises solution size.

Traditional approaches to designing the necessary optical isolation, over-current protection, shoot-through protection, and fault feedback lead to solutions that are unsuitable for use in lower-power applications. Typically solutions include bulky current transformers, or current-sense resistors that introduce additional power dissipation and wastage.

In order to improve energy efficiency greater feature integration is required, combining isolation and protection circuitry traditionally implemented using discrete components into a single smart gate-driver coupler. In particular, by integrating fast, efficient desaturation-detection methods and active Miller clamps it is possible to deliver a straightforward and cost-effective inverter control solution for low-power variable-speed drives.