Isolated Gate Drivers and EMI Noise

In this video, we are going to use an impulse noise simulator to create EMI noise to see how it affects capacitive, magnetic and light signal transmission across a galvanic isolation barrier. In power electronics, isolated gate drivers are used to drive IGBT and Power MOSFETs. In industrial application like inverters and motor drives, EMI noise will be generated by inductive load like motor. The noise may cause reflection, resonance or amplification within the gate drivers inside the power electronic equipment by its coupling through the wirings. This will cause the gate drivers to malfunction with erroneous output and in the worst case be permanently damaged.

To meet the stringent requirements for functional safety in motor drives and inverters, it is very important for the gate drivers to be immune to EMI noise. Today’s available galvanic isolated gate drivers use three different types of coupling, namely capacitive, magnetic and light for signal transmission across the isolation barrier. We are going to use an impulse noise simulator to create EMI noise to see how it affects these three different couplings.