Vehicle electrification is transforming the automotive industry, and consumers are increasingly demanding vehicles that can charge faster and drive farther. As a result, engineers are being challenged to design compact, lightweight automotive systems without compromising vehicle performance. Using TI’s new automotive GaN FETs can help reduce the size of electric vehicle (EV) onboard chargers and DC/DC converters by as much as 50% compared to existing Si or SiC solutions – enabling engineers to achieve extended battery range, increased system reliability and lower design cost. In industrial designs, the new devices enable high efficiency and power density in AC/DC power-delivery applications where low losses and reduced board space are important – such as hyperscale and enterprise computing platforms as well as 5G telecom rectifiers.

“Wide-bandgap semiconductor technologies like GaN inherently bring firmly established capabilities to power electronics, especially for high-voltage systems,” said Asif Anwar, director of the Powertrain, Body, Chassis & Safety Service at Strategy Analytics. “Texas Instruments leverages over a decade of investment and development to deliver a uniquely holistic approach – combining internal GaN-on-Si device production and packaging with optimized Si driver technology to successfully implement GaN in new applications.”

“Industrial and automotive applications increasingly demand more power in less space, and designers must deliver proven power management systems that operate reliably over the long lifetime of the end equipment,” saidSteve Lambouses, vice president for High Voltage Power at TI. “Backed by more than 40 million device reliability hours and more than 5 GWh of power conversion application testing, TI’s GaN technology provides the lifetime reliability engineers require in any market.”

Double power density with fewer devices

In high-voltage, high-density applications, minimizing board space is an important design consideration. As electronic systems are getting smaller, the components inside them must also get smaller and sit closer together. TI’s new GaN FETs integrate a fast-switching driver, plus internal protection and temperature sensing, enabling engineers to achieve high performance while reducing board space for their power management designs. This integration, plus the high power density of TI’s GaN technology, enables engineers to eliminate more than 10 components typically required for discrete solutions. Additionally, each of the new 30-mΩ FETs can support up to 4 kW of power conversion when applied in a half-bridge configuration.

Reach the industry’s highest efficiency in power factor correction (PFC)

GaN offers the advantage of fast switching, which enables smaller, lighter and more efficient power systems. Historically, the trade-off with gaining fast switching capability is higher power losses. To avoid this trade-off, the new GaN FETs feature TI’s ideal diode mode to reduce power losses. For example, in PFCs, ideal diode mode reduces third-quadrant losses by up to 66% compared to discrete GaN and SiC metal oxide silicon FETs (MOSFETs). Ideal diode mode also eliminates the need for adaptive dead-time control, reducing firmware complexity and development time. Read the application note, “Maximizing the Performance of GaN with Ideal Diode Mode,” to learn more.

Maximize thermal performance

Offering 23% lower thermal impedance than the nearest competitive packaging, the TI GaN FET packaging allows engineers to use smaller heat sinks while simplifying thermal designs. The new devices provide maximum thermal design flexibility, no matter the application, with the ability to choose from either a bottom- or top-side-cooled package. In addition, the FETs’ integrated digital temperature reporting enables active power management, allowing engineers to optimize system thermal performance under varying loads and operating conditions.

Package, availability and pricing

Pre-production versions of the four new industrial-grade, 600-V GaN FETs are available now, only on TI.com, in a 12-mm-by-12-mm, quad flat no-lead (QFN) package with pricing listed in the table below. TI expects the industrial devices to ship in volume production in the first quarter of 2021. Evaluation modules are available for purchase on TI.com starting at US$199. Multiple payment, line-of-credit and fast, reliable shipping options are available on TI.com.

Pre-production versions of the new LMG3522R030-Q1 and LMG3525R030-Q1 650-V automotive GaN FETs and evaluation modules are expected to be available for purchase on TI.com in the first quarter of 2021. Engineering samples are available upon request at www.ti.com/autogan.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated (Nasdaq: TXN) is a global semiconductor company that designs, manufactures, tests and sells analog and embedded processing chips for markets such as industrial, automotive, personal electronics, communications equipment and enterprise systems. Our passion to create a better world by making electronics more affordable through semiconductors is alive today, as each generation of innovation builds upon the last to make our technology smaller, more efficient, more reliable and more affordable – making it possible for semiconductors to go into electronics everywhere. We think of this as Engineering Progress. It’s what we do and have been doing for decades. Learn more at TI.com.

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This article is republished from Texas Instruments.