TIDM-SOLARUINV: Zener or Schottky diodes across Gate-Source in Gate Driver Design

Jerome Yuen

Prodigy 20 points

Part Number: TIDM-SOLARUINV
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: UCC27324

Hi, I was referring to the gate drivers in the reference design and I came across these two designs:

Full Bridge Gate Driver (p. 3, highlight mine):

I assume the highlighted Zener diodes are for voltage clamping for the gate of the MOSFET.

The image below are low side gate drivers for MOSFETs (p. 9, highlight mine)

But rather than Zener diodes, the BOM list states that these are Schottky diodes, may I know why? When do we use which?

Regards,

Jerome

over 1 year ago

0 Jerome Yuen over 1 year ago

Prodigy 20 points

Is the use of Schottky diodes related to the UCC27324's gate driver having a bipolar and MOSFET hybrid output stage?

0 Shamim Choudhury over 1 year ago in reply to Jerome Yuen

TI__Genius 11215 points

Yes, this was UCC27324 gate drivers recommended usage.

0 Jerome Yuen over 1 year ago in reply to Shamim Choudhury

Prodigy 20 points

Hi Shamim, thank you for your response!

Just a follow up question, may I know where such a recommendation can be found, or perhaps even better, if there is a method of knowing when a Schottky is used? Because I didn't get this understanding purely from the UCCx732x datasheet (or perhaps I've missed it, and in that case, could you point it out to me?).

Regards and thanks,

Jerome

0 Shamim Choudhury over 1 year ago in reply to Jerome Yuen

TI__Genius 11215 points

You can read

SLUA618A–March 2017–Revised October 2018

Power management

Power management forum

TIDM-SOLARUINV: Zener or Schottky diodes across Gate-Source in Gate Driver Design