ON Semiconductor’s high-speed gallium nitride (GaN) gate driver won the “Top 10 Power Product Award”

Whether it is home appliances, Electronic devices around us, or increasingly electronic cars, we are in contact with electronic products all the time. In each of these devices, an electronic device called a “gate driver” is required, which acts as a “switch” and a “gate” in the circuit and is very important in the process of moving the power to the end application. In the field of electronics, power electronic systems convert electricity between AC and DC forms and between DC voltages with extremely high energy efficiency. And a good gate drive scheme can help the electronic power system to complete the power conversion more efficiently and stably.

The main drivers of power conversion are switches: power MOSFETs, IGBTs, wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices, SiC MOSFETs, and gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). In most topologies, these transistors are switched on and off at frequencies from kHz to MHz. The gate voltage controls whether the switch is on or off, which is where the gate driver comes in. The gate driver is used to control the gate voltage of the power switch, which is complex and demanding.

In practice, the choice of gate driver affects energy efficiency, reliability, safety and solution size. The ON Semiconductor gate driver NCP51820, which won the “Top 10 Power Product Award” in 21IC China Electronics Network in 2019, fully demonstrates the perfect application of high efficiency and low power consumption in GaN technology.

Gate driver NCP51820 (Image source: ON semiconductor)

GaN demands very high gate driver performance. GaN is a high-speed device and has advantages in hard-switching applications due to its low capacitance, but has no avalanche voltage rating, so gate driver selection is critical. Power dissipation in a gate circuit varies with gate drive voltage and frequency, switching is in nanoseconds, and peak currents can be in the ampere range, so the drive circuit needs to match this speed while still supplying a lot of current.

ON Semiconductor Gate Driver Solutions NCP51820 GaN Gate Driver and NCP1568 Active Clamp Flyback Controller Circuit with Regulated +5.2V Amplitude Gate Driver for High-Side and Low-Side Output Optimum Enhancement Mode GaN . And uses advanced junction isolation technology to customize the turn-on and turn-off edge rates to achieve the best EMI / energy efficiency.

The Links:   SX25S003-ZZA MG75Q2YS42

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