Gate driver ICs for 650 V GaN HEMTs

EiceDRIVER™ gate driver ICs are the perfect fit to 600 V and 650 V CoolGaN™ GIT HEMTs

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Overview

Wide-bandgap semiconductors allow higher electric field strengths and thus result in significantly smaller high-voltage switches compared to silicon alternatives. Consequently, GaN-based power devices can operate at high switching frequencies without compromising efficiency. Infineon’s CoolGaN™ gate injection transistor (GIT) technology is based on a hybrid-drain HEMT with a p-GaN gate resulting in a robust normally off power switch.

Key Features

  • Fast turn-on and turn-off slew rate
  • Extended CMTI robustness
  • Shoot-through protection option
  • Fast output clamping
  • Short propagation delay
  • Undervoltage lookout options
  • Dead-time control (DTC) option
  • Low impedance outputs
  • Split ground

Products

About

Benefits of Infineon CoolGaN™ GIT HEMT and EiceDRIVER™ gate driver ICs

 For high-voltage applications, a gate-injection transistor (GIT) is the structure of choice because its gate is very rugged without concerns for overvoltage, it delivers higher peak-current handling than a Schottky gate, and the hole injection from the gate reduces dynamic on-state resistance (RDS(on)) to negligible levels. This is why CoolGaN™ high-voltage devices use GIT-based enhancement-mode (e-mode) technology for true normally off behavior and consistent performance at high dV/dt and di/dt.

The gate driver ICs for 650 V GaN HEMTs offer a number of advantages, including a safe off-state with extremely fast transients and low switching losses. Low dead time and excellent immunity to switching noise are also available.

Other features include hardware-based protection to stay in the safe operating range and avoidance of spurious starts, even on the first pulse or after burst mode operation. They also allow reliable operation at high switching frequencies. 

Dual-channel silicon-on-insulator (SOI) gate drivers for GaN switches

Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology is revolutionizing the market for motor-driving applications due to its ability to offer higher power density and lower energy losses compared to traditional silicon based solutions. The considerable decrease in energy losses with GaN power switches allows designers to avoid using cooling systems, such as bulky heatsinks and noisy fans. Many applications only require functional isolation and therefore do not need certified isolation (e.g. Home appliances and battery-powered tools). This distinction enables the use of lower-cost solutions such as Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Level-Shift Gate Driver IC such as 2ED21064S06J or 2ED21814S06J.

Infineon SOI gate driver ICs offer functional isolation, many current driving options to efficiently switch CoolGaN™ power devices in various applications, split ground points to simplify the PCB layout and reduce noise coupling, low-cost monolithic gate driving solution, and  power scalability to supports multi-platform utilization.  This discrete approach enables the development of versatile and efficient power systems capable of meeting diverse performance requirements.

EiceDRIVER™ silicon-on-insulator product family
Single-channel isolated gate driver ICs for high-voltage GaN switches

To deal with the particularities of the concept of Infineon’s CoolGaN™ gate injection transistor, an innovative differential gate-drive concept has been implemented in tailor-made gate driver ICs of the EiceDRIVER™ 1EDx56x3 product family. CoolGaN™ e-mode HEMTs are best driven by Infineon’s EiceDRIVER™ ICs, the 1EDF5673K, 1EDF5673F, and 1EDS5663H.

They ensure robust and highly efficient, high-voltage GaN switch operation whilst concurrently minimizing R&D efforts and shortening time to market.

Dual-channel gate driver IC portfolio optimized for CoolGaN GIT HEMTs

Dual-channel drivers of the EiceDRIVER™ 2EDxx259 product family feature dead-time control (DTC) and shoot-through protection (STP) to ensure safe operation in half-bridge topologies using a single IC. A hybrid gate driving configuration for half-bridge topologies, composed of two single-channel gate driver ICs of the EiceDRIVER™ 1EDBx275F and 1EDNx550B, allows optimizing the driver IC placement on the PCB to minimize the gate loop parasitic inductances.

This results in a PCB area saving (compared with a dual-channel gate driver IC) and it comes with a highly competitive bill-of-material (BOM).

Benefits of Infineon CoolGaN™ GIT HEMT and EiceDRIVER™ gate driver ICs

 For high-voltage applications, a gate-injection transistor (GIT) is the structure of choice because its gate is very rugged without concerns for overvoltage, it delivers higher peak-current handling than a Schottky gate, and the hole injection from the gate reduces dynamic on-state resistance (RDS(on)) to negligible levels. This is why CoolGaN™ high-voltage devices use GIT-based enhancement-mode (e-mode) technology for true normally off behavior and consistent performance at high dV/dt and di/dt.

The gate driver ICs for 650 V GaN HEMTs offer a number of advantages, including a safe off-state with extremely fast transients and low switching losses. Low dead time and excellent immunity to switching noise are also available.

Other features include hardware-based protection to stay in the safe operating range and avoidance of spurious starts, even on the first pulse or after burst mode operation. They also allow reliable operation at high switching frequencies. 

Dual-channel silicon-on-insulator (SOI) gate drivers for GaN switches

Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology is revolutionizing the market for motor-driving applications due to its ability to offer higher power density and lower energy losses compared to traditional silicon based solutions. The considerable decrease in energy losses with GaN power switches allows designers to avoid using cooling systems, such as bulky heatsinks and noisy fans. Many applications only require functional isolation and therefore do not need certified isolation (e.g. Home appliances and battery-powered tools). This distinction enables the use of lower-cost solutions such as Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Level-Shift Gate Driver IC such as 2ED21064S06J or 2ED21814S06J.

Infineon SOI gate driver ICs offer functional isolation, many current driving options to efficiently switch CoolGaN™ power devices in various applications, split ground points to simplify the PCB layout and reduce noise coupling, low-cost monolithic gate driving solution, and  power scalability to supports multi-platform utilization.  This discrete approach enables the development of versatile and efficient power systems capable of meeting diverse performance requirements.

EiceDRIVER™ silicon-on-insulator product family
Single-channel isolated gate driver ICs for high-voltage GaN switches

To deal with the particularities of the concept of Infineon’s CoolGaN™ gate injection transistor, an innovative differential gate-drive concept has been implemented in tailor-made gate driver ICs of the EiceDRIVER™ 1EDx56x3 product family. CoolGaN™ e-mode HEMTs are best driven by Infineon’s EiceDRIVER™ ICs, the 1EDF5673K, 1EDF5673F, and 1EDS5663H.

They ensure robust and highly efficient, high-voltage GaN switch operation whilst concurrently minimizing R&D efforts and shortening time to market.

Dual-channel gate driver IC portfolio optimized for CoolGaN GIT HEMTs

Dual-channel drivers of the EiceDRIVER™ 2EDxx259 product family feature dead-time control (DTC) and shoot-through protection (STP) to ensure safe operation in half-bridge topologies using a single IC. A hybrid gate driving configuration for half-bridge topologies, composed of two single-channel gate driver ICs of the EiceDRIVER™ 1EDBx275F and 1EDNx550B, allows optimizing the driver IC placement on the PCB to minimize the gate loop parasitic inductances.

This results in a PCB area saving (compared with a dual-channel gate driver IC) and it comes with a highly competitive bill-of-material (BOM).

Design resources

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