Hi,
It seams quite common in these circuits to control the MOSFET Vds dV/dt by slowing down the leading edge gate drive on the complementary MOSFET. My understanding is that this is principally required due to the much reduced dV/dt rating of the MOSFET when the built in anti-parallel diode is in reverse recovery. On the falling edge gate drive there is no such limitation and a faster edge saves power.
Turning attention to the gate driver circuitry, it seams common to implement a series resistor (between the gate driver and the MOSFET), and a diode - cathode towards the driver (possibly with a smaller resistor in series).
I am looking into the details of a couple of existing company designs where quite a bulky schottky diodes have been used for this purpose, eg V8PAN50, 15MQ040N. These devices are several amp capable, but that is to be expected right? (gate drivers are several amp capable too).
Looking at the signals with a scope, it is quite clear that the capacitance of the diodes is having a large effect, effectively posing as a short circuit for about 3-5V of the rising edge (sharp edge then step then slower edge). Removing the diodes proved this is independent of and is having a much larger effect than hitting the miller plateau.
Has anyone else seen similar? Is a shottky the right choice here? What about standard fast recovery diodes (is there any disadvantages of using those)?