EMI-optimized driver for high-frequency boost converter

For power-efficient electronic systems, the most suitable supply generation can be obtained with switch mode power supplies (SMPS). However, due to the inherent noise of SMPS, the electromagnetic emission (EME) is strongly affected by the switching activity, especially for applications with high EME requirements, e.g., in the automotive or medical field. One method of EME reduction influencing the high-frequency spectra content is the control of SMPS switching activity. This paper presents the integrated circuit (IC) implementation of a gate driver with adaptive current source control for a high-frequency boost converter with external switch based on the gate voltage slope information. The advantage of this suggestion concerning previous solutions is the ability to adjust gate driver currents based on the gate voltage slope information without the need for a complex digital computation scheme nor the need for digitized information about the switch current, switching node voltage or gate voltage. Also, the implementation eliminates the impact of the external parameters (temperature, input voltage, load current). The proposed concept was examined based on an 8 V output voltage, 500 kHz switching frequency boost converter.