Integrated 100V chipset shrinks size of motor drives
Integrating a 100V EPC23101 eGaN driver and EPC2302 eGaN FET make up the ePower chipset from Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). The company says it offers high performance in a small form factor for high power density applications including DC/DC conversion and motor drives.
The 100V, 65A IC chipset is designed for 48V DC/DC conversion used in high-density computing applications and in 48V brushless DC (BLDC) motor drives for e-mobility, robotics and drones.
The EPC23101 eGaN IC and EPC2302 eGaN FET are integrated in the ePower chipset capable of a maximum withstand voltage of 100V, delivering up to 65A load current, while switching speeds greater than 1.0MHz.
Key features of the EPC23101 IC, which uses EPC’s proprietary GaN IC technology, include integrated 3.3mOhm RDS (on) high side FET with gate driver, input logic interface, level shifting, bootstrap charging, gate drive buffer circuits and gate driver output to drive external low side eGaN FET
The EPC2302 eGaN FET offers a small RDS (on), of just 1.8mOhm, together with very small QG, QGD, and QOSS parameters for low conduction and switching losses.
Both devices have a thermally enhanced QFN package with exposed top with optimised pinout between the two devices. The combined chipset footprint, is 7.0 x 5.0mm, resulting in a small solution size for the highest power density applications, according to EPC.
When operated in a 48 to 12V buck converter, the EPC23101 – EPC2302 chipset delivers 96 per cent efficiency at 1.0MHz switching frequency and 97 per cent efficiency at 500kHz switching frequency and can deliver 65A with less than 50 degrees C temperature rise.
The ePower family of products have been created to make it easy for designers to take advantage of the performance improvements made possible with GaN technology. Integrated devices are easier to design, easier to layout, easier to assemble, save space on the PCB and increase efficiency, reasons EPC.
“Integrated GaN-on-Silicon offers higher performance in a smaller footprint with significantly reduced design engineering required,” said Alex Lidow, CEO and co-founder of EPC. “From the serenity or control environment of digital and analogue controllers, the ePower Chipset translates the PWM command signals to high voltage and high current waveforms capable of driving real world loads. Designers can use the ePower Chipset to make lighter weight and more precise battery-operated BLDC motor drives for e-motion, robotic arms and drones, higher efficiency 48V input DC/DC converters for data centre, datacomms, artificial intelligence, solar MPPT (maximum power point tracking) and other industrial and consumer applications,” he added.
EPC also offers the EPC90142 development board, a 100V maximum device voltage, 65A maximum output current, half bridge board featuring the EPC23101 Integrated ePower FET and EPC2302 eGaN FET. The board is designed to simplify the evaluation process of the ePower Stage Chipset and is designed for optimal switching. It measures 2.0 x 2.0-inch (50.8 x 50.8mm) and contains all the critical components required for evaluation.
All devices and boards are available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key.
EPC specialises in enhancement mode gallium nitride (eGaN) -based power management. eGaN FETs and ICs provide performance many times greater than the best silicon power MOSFETs in applications such as DC/DC converters, remote sensing technology (lidar), motor drives for e-mobility, robotics and drones, as well as low-cost satellites.
