Technical Article

MS-2318

Design Fundamentals of
Implementing an Isolated
Half-Bridge Gate Driver
Isolated half-bridge gate drivers are used in many
applications that range from isolated dc-to-dc power supply
modules where high power density and efficiency are
required, to solar inverters where high isolation voltage and
long-term reliability are critical. These design concepts will
be discussed in detail as this article explores the ability of
isolated half-bridge gate driver solutions to provide high
performance and a small solution size.
The isolated half-bridge drivers function is to drive the gates
of high- and low-side N-channel MOSFETs (or IGBTs) with
a low output impedance to reduce the conduction losses, and
a fast switching time to reduce the switching losses. The
high- and low-side drivers need very close matching of the
timing characteristics to allow accurate and efficient
switching. This reduces the deadtime from one switch of the
half bridge turning off before the second switch turns on.
The typical approach to implementing the isolated halfbridge gate drive function is to use an optocoupler for
isolation, followed by a high voltage gate driver IC, as shown
in Figure 1. One potential issue with this circuit is that there
is only one isolated input channel, and it relies on the high
voltage driver to have the needed matching in the timing
between channels, and it also relies on the deadtime needed
for the applications. Another concern is that high voltage
gate drivers do not have galvanic isolation and rely, instead,
on junction isolation to separate the high-side drive voltage
from the low-side drive voltage in the same IC. Parasitic
inductance in the circuit can cause the output voltage, VS, to
go below ground during a low-side switching event. When
this happens, the high-side driver can latch up and become
permanently damaged.

Figure 1. High Voltage Half-Bridge Gate Driver

Optocoupler Gate Driver

The next approach, shown in Figure 2, avoids problems with

high-side to low-side interactions by using two optocouplers
to establish galvanic isolation between the outputs. The gate
driver circuit is often included in the same package as the
optocoupler, and it is most common for there to be two
separate optocoupler gate driver ICs to complete the isolated
half bridge, which makes for a larger solution size. It should
be noted that optocouplers are manufactured as a discrete
device, even if two are packaged together, so they will have
limitations in channel-to-channel matching. This will
increase the required deadtime between switching one
channel off and turning the other channel on, reducing the
efficiency. The response speed of an optocoupler is also
limited due to the capacitance of the primary side light
emitting diode (LED), and driving the output to speeds up
to 1 MHz will be limited by its propagation delay (500 ns
max) and slow rise and fall time (100 ns max). To run an
optocoupler to its maximum speed, the LED current needs
to be increased to more than 10 mA, consuming more
power, and reducing the lifetime and reliability of the
optocoupler, especially in high temperature environments
common in solar inverter and power supply applications.

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MS-2318

Technical Article

Figure 3. Pulse Transformer Half-Bridge Gate Driver

Digital Isolator Gate Driver

Figure 2. Optocoupler Half-Bridge Gate Driver

Pulse Transformer Gate Driver

Next, we will look at galvanic isolators which have a speed

advantage over optocouplers due to lower propagation
delays and more accurate timing. A pulse transformer is an
isolation transformer which can operate at speeds often
needed for half-bridge gate driver applications (up to 1 MHz).
A gate driver IC can be used to deliver the high currents
needed for charging the capacitive MOSFET gates. The gate
driver in Figure 3 will differentially drive the primary of the
pulse transformer, which has two windings on the secondary
to drive each gate of a half bridge. An advantage of using a
pulse transformer is that it does not require isolated power
supplies to drive the secondary side MOSFETs. A potential
problem in this application can occur when large transient
gate drive currents flow in the inductive coils, causing
ringing. This can potentially switch the gate on and off when
not intended, leading to damage of the MOSFETs. Another
limitation with pulse transformers is they may not work well
in applications that require signals that have more than 50%
duty cycle. This is because transformers can deliver only ac
signals since the core flux must be reset each half cycle to
maintain a volt-second balance. Finally, the magnetic core
and isolated windings of the pulse transformer require a
relatively large package. This, combined with the driver IC
and other discrete components, creates a solution that may
be too large for many high density applications.

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Now we will look at the digital isolator approach to an

isolated half-bridge gate driver. In Figure 4, the digital
isolator uses a standard CMOS integrated circuit process
with metal layers to form transformer coils separated by
polyimide insulation. This combination achieves more than
5 kV rms (1 minute rating) isolation, which can be used in
reinforced isolated power supply and inverter applications.

May 2012 | Page 2 of 4

Figure 4. Digital Isolator with Transformer Isolation

Technical Article

MS-2318
transient immunity (CMTI) from a standard optocoupler
rated at less than 10 kV/s to as much as 25 kV/s for an
optocoupler gate driver. For many gate drive applications,
25 kV/s CMTI may be enough, but for power supplies with
large transient voltages and for solar inverter applications,
50 kV/s or more CMTI may be needed.

Figure 5. Digital Isolator 4 A Gate Driver

As shown in the circuit in Figure 5, the digital isolator

eliminates the LED used in an optocoupler and its associated
aging problems, consumes far less power, and is more
reliable. Galvanic isolation is provided between the input
and the output, and between the outputs, to eliminate highside to low-side interactions. The output drivers deliver a
low output impedance to reduce the conduction losses and a
fast switching time to reduce the switching losses. Unlike an
optocoupler design, the high- and low-side digital isolators
are integrated circuits with matching outputs for better
efficiency. The high voltage gate driver integrated circuit
(Figure 1) has added propagation delay in the level shifting
circuit, so it cannot match channel-to-channel timing
characteristics like the digital isolator can. This integration
of the gate drivers in the digital isolator reduces the solution
size down to a single package for a much smaller solution size.
Common-Mode Transient Immunity

In many half-bridge gate driver applications for high voltage

power supplies, very fast transients can occur across the
switching elements. In these applications, if a large dV/dt
can capacitively couple across an isolation barrier, it has the
potential to cause logic transition errors across the barrier.
In an isolated half-bridge driver application, this could turn
on both switches in a cross conduction that could destroy
the switches. Any parasitic capacitance across the isolation
barrier tends to be a coupling path for common-mode
transients. Optocouplers need to have very sensitive
receivers to detect the small amount of light transmitted
across their isolation barrier, and their outputs can be upset
by large common-mode transients. The optocoupler
sensitivity to common-mode transient voltages can be
improved by the addition of a shield added between the LED
and the receiver, which is how most optocoupler gate drivers
are made. This shield can improve the common-mode

Figure 6. Capacitor-Based Digital Isolator with CMTI of < 10 kV/s

Digital isolators can deliver higher signal levels to their

receivers and withstand very high levels of common-mode
transients without data errors. Transformer-based isolators
are four terminal devices and provide low differential
impedance to the signal and high common-mode
impedance to the noise, which can yield excellent CMTI.
Other digital isolators may use capacitive coupling to create
a changing electric field and transmit data across the
isolation barrier. Unlike the transformer-based isolator, the
capacitor-based isolator is a two terminal device and the
noise and the signal share the same transmission path. With
a two terminal device, the signal frequencies need to be well
above the expected frequency of the noise so that the barrier
capacitance presents low impedance to the signal and high
impedance to the noise. When the common-mode noise
level becomes large enough to overwhelm the signal, it can
cause a data upset at the isolator output. An example of a
capacitor-based isolator data upset is shown in Figure 6,
where the output (Channel 4) has glitched low for 6 ns
during a common-mode transient of only 10 kV/s. Note
that this data was taken at the threshold level of upsetting
the capacitor based isolator, and if the transient was larger,
the upset could last for a much longer time, which could
make the switching of the MOSFETs unstable. In contrast,
transformer-based digital isolators have been shown to
withstand common-mode transients in excess of 100 kV/s
without a data upset at the output (see Figure 7).

May 2012 | Page 3 of 4

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MS-2318

Technical Article
In summary, for isolated half-bridge gate driver applications,
the transformer-based digital isolator has been shown to
offer numerous advantages over optocoupler and pulse
transformer-based designs. The solution size and design
complexity are dramatically reduced through integration,
which leads to much improved timing performance.
Robustness is also improved through galvanic isolation of
the output drivers and higher CMTI.

REFERENCES
Technical Article, Common-Mode Transient Immunity, Chris
Coughlin (Analog Devices)
Figure 7. Transformer-Based Digital Isolator ADuM140x with CMTI of
100 kV/s

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May 2012 | Page 4 of 4