25 April 2016

TI launches 600V driver-integrated GaN 70mΩ FET power stage for power conversion

Texas Instruments Inc has made available 600V gallium nitride (GaN) 70mΩ field-effect transistor (FET) power-stage engineering samples, making TI the first semiconductor manufacturer to publicly offer a high-voltage driver-integrated GaN solution, it is claimed.

Coupled with the firm's analog and digital power-conversion controllers, the new 12A LMG3410 power stage enables designers to create smaller, more efficient and higher-performing designs compared to silicon FET-based solutions, TI says. These benefits are especially important in isolated high-voltage industrial, telecom, enterprise computing and renewable energy applications.

"With over 3 million hours of reliability testing, the LMG3410 gives power designers the confidence to realize the potential of GaN and to rethink their power architecture and systems in ways not feasible before," says Steve Lambouses, VP of high-voltage power solutions. "Expanding on TI's reputation for manufacturing capability and extensive system-design expertise, the new power stage is a significant step," he adds. 

With its integrated driver and features such as zero reverse-recovery current, the LMG3410 provides reliable performance, especially in hard-switching applications where it can reduce switching losses by as much as 80%, it is reckoned. Unlike stand-alone GaN FETs, the easy-to-use LMG3410 integrates built-in intelligence for temperature, current and under-voltage lockout (UVLO) fault protection.

The LMG3410 is the first integrated circuit to include GaN FETs manufactured by TI. Building on years of experience in manufacturing and process technologies, TI creates its GaN devices in a silicon-compatible factory and qualifies them with practices that are beyond the typical Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) standards to ensure the reliability and robustness of GaN for demanding applications, TI says. Easy-to-use packaging can help to increase the adoption of GaN power designs in applications such as power factor controller (PFC) AC/DC converters, high-voltage DC bus converters and photovoltaic (PV) inverters, the firm adds.

Features of the LMG3410 include:

• Double the power density. The 600V power stage delivers 50% lower power losses in a totem-pole PFC compared with state-of-the-art silicon-based boost power-factor converters. The reduced bill of materials (BOM) count and higher efficiency enable a reduction in power-supply size of as much as 50%, it is reckoned.
• Reduced packaging parasitic inductance. The new device's 8mm x 8mm quad flat no-lead (QFN) package decreases power loss, component voltage stress and electromagnetic interference (EMI) compared to discrete GaN solutions.
• New topologies. GaN's zero reverse-recovery charge benefits new switching topologies, including totem-pole PFC and LLC topologies to increase power density and efficiency.

To support designers who are taking advantage of GaN technology in their power designs, TI is also introducing new products to expand its GaN ecosystem. The LMG5200POLEVM-10, a 48V to 1V point-of-load (POL) evaluation module, will include the new TPS53632G GaN FET controller, paired with the 80V LMG5200 GaN FET power stage. The solution allows for efficiency as high as 92% in industrial, telecom and datacom applications, the firm reckons.

TI will offer a development kit that includes a half-bridge daughtercard and four LMG3410 IC samples. A second kit contains a system-level evaluation motherboard. Used together, these two kits enable immediate bench testing and design. The two development kits are available now, priced at $299 and $199, respectively.

Tags: E-mode GaN FETs

Visit: www.ti.com/lmg3410-pr