High-current gate driver devices are required in switching power applications for a variety of reasons. In order to achieve fast switching of power devices and reduce associated switching-power losses, a powerful gate driver device is employed between the PWM output of control devices and the gates of the power semiconductor devices. Further, gate driver devices are indispensable when it is not feasible for the PWM controller device to directly drive the gates of the switching devices. With the advent of digital power, this situation is often encountered because the PWM signal from the digital controller is often a 3.3-V logic signal which is not capable of effectively turning ON a power switch. A level-shifting circuitry is required to boost the 3.3-V signal to the gate-drive voltage (such as 12 V) in order to fully turn ON the power device and minimize conduction losses. Traditional buffer-drive circuits based on NPN/PNP bipolar transistors in a totem-pole arrangement, as emitter-follower configurations, prove inadequate with digital power because the traditional buffer-drive circuits lack level-shifting capability. Gate driver devices effectively combine both the level-shifting and buffer-drive functions. Gate driver devices also find other needs ,such as minimizing the effect of high frequency switching noise by locating the high-current driver physically close to the power switch, driving gate-drive transformers and controlling floating power device gates, reducing power dissipation and thermal stress in controller devices by moving gate-charge power losses into the controller.

Finally, emerging wide band-gap power device technologies, such as GaN switches, which are capable of supporting very high switching frequency operation, are driving special requirements in terms of gate-drive capability. These requirements include a low operating voltage range (5 V to 6 V), low propagation delays, good delay matching, and availability in compact, low inductance packages with good thermal capability. In summary, gate driver devices are an extremely important component in switching power combining benefits of high performance, low cost, low component count, board space reduction, and simplified system design.