Gate Drive Circuit Improvements

[74HC14]

The use of a 200Ω resistor R6 is a source of heat, and it's not as high in drive current as it could be. By using a circuit like that found here:
https://circuitden.com/blog/11
You could reduce the heat loss in both the gate drive circuit, and in the switching losses of Q1.

[thirstyone]

do you suggest replacing the r4/r5/q2 circuit with the design 2 scheme in the above document?
what about specialized mosfet drivers (like IR2105)? won't they be even better?

[74HC14]

do you suggest replacing the r4/r5/q2 circuit with the design 2 scheme in the above document?
what about specialized mosfet drivers (like IR2105)? won't they be even better?

A dedicated gate driver is definitely better than design 1, but design 2 can probably source more current than most monolithic gate drivers ICs, at least until you start meddling with parts like the ZXGD3006, which are basically just BJT totem poles that need a ~1A drive on the input anyhow. If you want to minimise switching losses design 2 might be worth considering, but in this case I believe design 1 would be fine. The same goes for a monolithic gate driver, though I didn't mention that intitially since less people are likely to have one on hand. But an NE555 works pretty decently if you excuse the dropout.

Beware that both designs 1 and 2 require a logical high signal to turn off, so on startup will turn the FET on without any input. So I'd add a discrete 50k or so pull-up resistor on the MCU pin that triggers the MOSFET.