EVAL-ADUM4146WHB1Z driver board issues

Hi eoarogunjo42 ,

Thank you for using the EVAL-ADuM4146WHB1Z.

The 'ready' indicates that the supply is OKAY.

The 'fault' indicates that you have a DESAT event - can you please advise the how are you using the board? 

If you are testing the board as a standalone board - you need to put a jumper in P4 and P5 to short the DESAT pins to GND2 - this will prevent the DESAT pins going high and trigger the fault.

You need to issue a reset pulse to clear the fault through P2 - pin 15 or putting in a jumper in P3 then remove.

Let me know if you still have the Fault after these suggestions.

Thanks and regards,

Jefferson

Hi Jefferson,

Thank you for your reply.

I tried your recommendations and they helped resolved my issues.

However, I want to ask that if I want to use the board when they are connected to a power device (CAB016M12FM3, SiC MOSFET), Would I still need to short, P4 and P5?

Also, the recommended Vgs voltage is between -4v and +15

but, when the driver boards are tested on no-load (open circuit) I and getting transient values between -10V and +23V and steady state values between -2.8V and 15.7V which are clearly out of range for both the gate driver board dc-dc supply ratings (-3 to +15V) and CAB016M12FM3 recommended Vgs.

Will this not be an issue if I connect the drivers to the load?

Thank you.

Ezekiel.

Hi Jefferson,

Thank you for your reply.

I tried your recommendations and they helped resolved my issues.

However, I want to ask that if I want to use the board when they are connected to a power device (CAB016M12FM3, SiC MOSFET), Would I still need to short, P4 and P5?

Also, the recommended Vgs voltage is between -4v and +15

but, when the driver boards are tested on no-load (open circuit) I and getting transient values between -10V and +23V and steady state values between -2.8V and 15.7V which are clearly out of range for both the gate driver board dc-dc supply ratings (-3 to +15V) and CAB016M12FM3 recommended Vgs.

Will this not be an issue if I connect the drivers to the load?

Thank you.

Ezekiel.

Hi Ezekiel,

Good to know that the board is working okay now and you get rid of the Fault.

When you are going to use it with the FM3 module, you can disconnect the jumper in P4 and P5 to enable the DESAT function that measures the VDS voltage of the SiC but of course you can put them back on to disable the DESAT. 

As for the recommended VGS voltage of +15V/-4V, you can swap in a new isolated DC-DC module - i've run a quick search in Digikey and it gives some possible replacement (you just need to check the pin-pin compatibility). 15V DC DC Converters | Electronic Components Distributor DigiKey

for the overshoot during turn-on and turn-off, this is expected as you don't have a capacitive loading to slow down the ramp. This overshoot/undershoot response will improve once there is a load. You can put on a dummy load capacitance to replicate the gate capacitance of the FM3 module for you to check the closer overshoot/undershoot responses. Oscilloscope probing technique also affect this overshoot/undershoot response - you need to minimize inductance in the probing (have you tried the tip and barrel method? or you are using the long GND lead of the scope?).

Thanks and regards,

Jefferson.