Nanosecond gate driver for GaN power
Rohm has developed a a high speed gate driver IC for gallium nitride (GaN) power designs with nanosecond resolution.
The Rohm BD2311NVX-LB single channel gate driver is optimized for GaN devices with a minimum gate input pulse width of 1.25ns that contributes to smaller, more energy efficient, higher performance applications.
The design of the gate driver is important as GaN devices are particularly sensitive towards gate input overvoltage. Rohm has developed a unique method to suppress the gate voltage overshoots and has implemented it into this driver, taking into account the low drive voltage of GaN HEMT transistors.
The results showed that BD2311NVX had shorter rise time and lower ringing at 1MHz switching frequency for boost converters compared to other driver ICs.
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GaN has been key to improving power conversion efficiency while reducing the size of power supply units in server systems have become important factors as the number of IoT devices continues to grow. This requires further advancements in the power device sector. At the same time, LiDAR, which is used not only for autonomous driving but also for monitoring industrial equipment and social infrastructure, demands high-speed pulsed laser light to further increase recognition accuracy.
“GaN devices are expected to be materials that can demonstrate performance in the high-frequency range more than silicon. In power switching applications such as DC-DC and AC-DC converters, and in LiDAR applications, the performance of GaN devices can contribute to smaller, more energy-efficient, and higher performance applications,” said Professor Yue-Ming Hsin, Department of Electrical Engineering at the National Central University in Taiwan.
“The reduced rise time of this driver IC will help maximize the reduction in switching losses, which is an advantage of GaN. We are also looking forward to ROHM’s GaN solutions, which have strengths in analog technologies in power supplies and drivers,” said Hsin.
The optimum GaN device can be selected by adjusting the gate resistance based on application requirements and Rohm offers HEMT GaN devices in its EcoGaN range.
A reference design for LiDAR laser sensing incorporating the high speed gate driver, 150V EcoGaN GaN switch and high-power laser diodes is available to reduce development load and there are reference designs for a Square Wave Circuit (REFLD002-1) and a resonant circuit (REFLD002-2).
The single channel gate driver is available in distribution in a SSON06 package measuring 2.0 x 2.0 x0.6mm and Rohm plans to release smaller WLCSP products to support greater miniaturization.
www.rohm.com/reference-designs/
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