Gate-drive calculator

Translate gate-charge data into driver requirements.

The gate driver must move charge fast enough to meet switching targets without creating excessive ringing, false turn-on, or shoot-through. The useful quantities are charge and current—not an isolated gate capacitance value.

Core relationships

Pgate = Qg · Vdrive · fs · Ngates
tMiller ≈ Qgd / Igate
Rgate,total ≈ (Vdrive − Vplateau) / Igate

The total resistance includes driver output resistance, external gate resistance, internal device resistance, and layout impedance.

What the equations do not decide

The fastest edge is rarely the best edge. External resistance trades switching loss against overshoot, EMI, dv/dt-induced turn-on, and driver stress. Separate turn-on and turn-off resistors may be needed. Dead time must cover propagation mismatch and transition uncertainty while avoiding unnecessary body-diode conduction.

Open gate-drive engineering checks