From application requirements to Gate Driver choice

An application does not determine a single gate driver. It defines the operating envelope: bus voltage, topology, power level, switching frequency, isolation concept, ambient conditions, safety requirements, fault strategy, integration target, and qualification. The driver must then be matched to both the power switch and the complete system.

Home appliances and HVAC

Inverterized compressors, pumps, fans, refrigerators, washing machines, and air-conditioning systems commonly use PFC stages and three-phase motor inverters. Integration is valuable because the designer must coordinate six switches while controlling cost, PCB area, and fault handling. Three-phase gate drivers can combine six channels with bootstrap, UVLO, overcurrent, enable, fault, and shoot-through functions. Half-bridge drivers provide more flexibility when the inverter is partitioned across multiple devices. Key considerations for gate drivers in these applications are motor voltage and power, three-phase or half-bridge topology, bootstrap operation, negative switch-node transients, integrated overcurrent protection, propagation-delay matching, and operating temperature.

Next Steps

Explore Low-side, Three-phase and Half-bridge Gate Drivers.

Robotics, Industrial Drives and Automation

Servo drives, general-purpose drives, pumps, compressors, robotics, and factory automation use three-phase, half-bridge, or isolated drivers. Channel integration, negative switch-node tolerance, bootstrap behavior, timing consistency, diagnostics, and rugged fault handling drive selection. Robots combine motor drives, DC-DC converters, battery or bus interfaces, and distributed power stages. Three-phase drivers fit complete motor inverters; half-bridge drivers fit compact axis drives and DC-DC stages; isolated drivers address high-voltage converters or architectures with separated control and power domains. In battery-powered robots, low- and medium-voltage drivers may add charge pumps, current-sense amplifiers, programmable current, and protection to reduce external circuitry. Key considerations for gate drivers in these applications are channel count and integration, negative switch-node tolerance, bootstrap behavior, bus-voltage range, current-sense strategy, PWM interface, deadtime, package size, functional-safety needs, and fault reporting.

Next Steps

Explore Low-side, Three-phase, Half-bridge and Isolated Gate Drivers.

AI Servers and Data Centers

Power-supply units (PSU), intermediate bus converters (IBC), battery backup units (BBU), and point-of-load (POL) stages prioritize efficiency and power density. Higher switching frequency can reduce magnetic component size, but it increases sensitivity to propagation delay, minimum pulse width, gate-loop inductance, reverse current, and EMI. Low-side, half-bridge, dual-floating, and isolated drivers can all appear, depending on the converter stage and power architecture. Key considerations for gate drivers in these applications are fast timing, compact packages, source/sink strength, gate-voltage control, current-sense integration where needed, low parasitic layout, and robust operation during rapid load changes.

Next Steps

Explore Low-side, Half-bridge and Isolated Gate Drivers.

EV charging infrastructure

AC chargers and DC fast chargers use several conversion stages, such as PFC, isolated DC-DC, and auxiliary supplies. The driver requirements vary by stage, but high-voltage isolation, CMTI, DESAT or overcurrent response, active Miller clamp, controlled fault turn-off, and adequate creepage are common concerns in higher-power systems. Half-bridge drivers may be suitable where level shifting is sufficient; isolated drivers are used when galvanic separation or architecture requires it. 

Next Steps

Explore Half-bridge and Isolated Gate Drivers.

Photovoltaic (PV) Systems, Energy Storage Systems (ESS), and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Solar inverters, battery energy storage systems, and UPS platforms use bidirectional and unidirectional converters across a wide power range. Gate drivers must maintain predictable behavior during changing current direction, grid events, battery operating points, and fault conditions. Isolated and half-bridge topologies are common, with the final selection driven by converter architecture and insulation concept. Key considerations for gate drivers in these applications are working voltage, isolation class, CMTI, gate-current strength, delay matching, short-circuit protection, soft shutdown, operating lifetime, and thermal conditions.

Next Steps

Explore Half-bridge and Isolated Gate Drivers.

Solid-state transformers (SST)

Solid-state transformers use power-electronic converter cells to interface medium-voltage and lower-voltage domains. Their modular architecture can contain many bridge legs and isolated DC-DC stages, placing strong emphasis on isolation working voltage, CMTI, part-to-part propagation-delay consistency, short-circuit response, fault reporting, and isolated gate-driver bias power. Transformer driver ICs can complement isolated gate drivers by generating local isolated supplies.

Next Steps

Explore Isolated Gate Drivers and Transformer Driver ICs.

Lighting

Lighting power conversion uses low-side, half-bridge, high-side and low-side, and isolated stages across PFC, resonant, flyback, and output-converter architectures. Timing, compactness, logic compatibility, bootstrap operation, and cost-effective integration are typical priorities.

Next Steps

Explore Low-side, High-side, Half-bridge and Isolated Gate Drivers.

Light electric vehicles (LEV), battery-powered equipment, and robotics

LEV, drones, service robots, power tools, and battery-powered drives use low- and medium-voltage motor stages. Integrated charge pumps, regulators, current-sense amplifiers, programmable gate current, deadtime, and protection can reduce external circuitry.

Next Steps

Explore Low-side, Half-bridge and Three-phase Gate Drivers.

Automotive electric drivetrain and high-voltage conversion 

Traction inverters, on-board chargers (OBC), high-voltage DC-DC converters, and related vehicle power stages require switch-compatible gate bias, robust isolation or level shifting, CMTI, diagnostics, temperature capability, and automotive qualification. Traction inverters commonly emphasize DESAT or overcurrent detection, Miller-clamp behavior, controlled fault turn-off, and safe-state support. An OBC converts grid power to the high-voltage battery and often shares design concerns with an isolated DC-DC converter - compact packaging and high efficiency are important, but so are automotive qualifications, diagnostics, isolation, creepage, and robust operation over temperature and supply variation. Depending on the stage, designers may use isolated single-channel, dual-channel, or half-bridge gate drivers. 

Next Steps

Explore Half-bridge and Isolated Gate Drivers, Transformer Driver ICs, and Automotive Gate Drivers.

Automotive low-voltage and auxiliary systems

Automotive gate drivers also control traction inverters, 12 V to 48 V motor drives, battery disconnect switches, steering, braking, pumps, fans, and other actuators. These designs may require AEC-Q100 qualification, ISO 26262 work products or ASIL-oriented system support, advanced diagnostics, and application-specific safe-state behavior. Charge pumps, programmable current, current-sense amplifiers and diagnostic capabilities can be important. Product suitability must be verified at the device and system level.

Next Steps

Explore Half-bridge, Motor Drivers and Automotive Gate Drivers.

Application-to-driver quick guide

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Recommended documents

Frequently asked questions about Gate Driver's applications

Which Gate Driver topology is commonly used for a three-phase motor? 

A six-channel three-phase driver can control the complete inverter, while three half-bridge drivers or six isolated channels provide more distributed implementations. 

No. Isolation depends on the converter stage, topology, system insulation concept, working voltage, grounding scheme, and safety requirements. 

Low-side, half-bridge, dual-floating, and isolated gate drivers may be used across power-factor-correction (PFC), bus-conversion, switched-capacitor, backup, and auxiliary stages. 

They influence how quickly and reliably the power switches operate and help manage switching loss, timing, isolation, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and fault response across the converter. 

Key considerations include power-switch compatibility, isolation, common-mode transient immunity (CMTI), source and sink current, timing, protection, package creepage, operating temperature, automotive qualification, and diagnostics. 

These converters contain many coordinated switches. Propagation-delay spread affects deadtime, switching symmetry, conduction loss, and coordination across the switching cells. 

No. A transformer driver commonly generates isolated bias power for a gate-driver circuit; the gate driver applies the control signal to the power-switch gate.