Please help me selecting a suitable gate driver IC for multilevel converter. I am using IGBT based half-bridge capacitive sub-modules. Also help me in designing the multiple isolated gate-driver power supplies.
the big problem it is the voltage that must be isolated...for voltages higher than 1400V you will have problems to find commercial drivers and power supplies. Pulse transformers could be a solution for DC/DC converter, and not too high voltage...For high voltages (higher than 3kV) you will need special power supplies and fiber optics isolation, the driver depends of the component you are using...
The compatibility between the IGBT and its driver is very important for reliable operation - particularly because your devices will be facing high transient gate current that the driver should be able to deliver without damaging itself !
I suggest that you first freeze on the IGBT selection, and only then think of the driver.
In many cases, the two go with each other, that is, the data sheet of the power IGBT will have additional suggestions or application notes that tell you about possible drivers.
One of the solution which I tested is to use IR2112 for each bridge (in you cas 6). but every one must be supplied with a floating supply (by using a transformer for example)
I think you can try this driver MIC 4426/4427/4428 quite useful, but i don't know your current value so, i am not sure, this will work for you or not try.
As for the isolated power supplies for the floating gate drivers, you can use instead a single power supply feeding all gate drivers and concocting the drivers to the gates of the switching transistors by pulse transformers. This is an elegant solution. As an example of the pulse transformers please refer to the data sheet in the link:http://www.murata-ps.com/data/magnetics/kmp_772.pdf
Thanks for your response. Please provide me any application notes or related literature where pulse transformers are used for switching a number of high side series connected IGBTs.
the big problem it is the voltage that must be isolated...for voltages higher than 1400V you will have problems to find commercial drivers and power supplies. Pulse transformers could be a solution for DC/DC converter, and not too high voltage...For high voltages (higher than 3kV) you will need special power supplies and fiber optics isolation, the driver depends of the component you are using...