TI integrates driver, power management into GaN FET
Automotive electronics designers are faced with the challenge of creating compact and lightweight automotive systems without compromising the performance of the cars. TI’s new automotive GaN FETs can help deliver on the manufacturer’s promise to reduce the dimensions of on-board chargers and DC/DC converters of electric vehicles by up to 50% compared to existing Si or SiC solutions. This will allow designers to achieve greater range per battery charge, increased system reliability and lower design costs.
In densely populated applications with high voltages, minimising the PCB area is an important design criterion. One way to achieve this is through higher integration. This is also the case with the new GaN-FETs from TI. They include a fast switching driver and internal protection and temperature sensing functions, enabling them to reduce the board area of their power management designs. This integration, combined with the high-power density of TI’s GaN technology, allows engineers to eliminate the more than 10 components typically required in discrete solutions. In addition, each of the new 30mΩ FETs supports up to 4 kW of power in half-bridge configurations.
GaN offers the advantage of high switching speed, which in turn allows smaller, lighter and more efficient systems. In the past, high switching speed always had to be bought at the expense of high losses. To overcome this compromise, the new GaN FETs offer TI’s loss-reducing ideal diode mode. In power factor correction, for example, the ideal diode mode reduces losses in the third quadrant by up to 66% compared to discrete GaN and SiC MOSFETs. In addition, the ideal diode mode eliminates the need for adaptive dead time control, which reduces firmware complexity and shortens development time.
In addition, Texas Instruments’ designers have succeeded in reducing thermal resistance – it is now 23% lower than the nearest competitor. This allows designers at customer companies to use smaller heatsinks and simplify thermal design. The FETs’ integrated digital temperature reporting also allows active power management and allows engineers to optimise the thermal characteristics of a system under changing load and operating conditions.
Pre-series of the new 650V automotive GaN FETs, the LMG3522R030-Q1 and LMG3525R030-Q1, and the associated evaluation modules are expected to be available for purchase on TI.com from Q1 2021.
Development samples are available on request at www.ti.com/autogan .
Related information: Maximizing the Performance of GaN with Ideal Diode Mode
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