Motor drive inverter supports 14V to 80V input DC voltage
EPC’s EPC9186 supports a wide input DC voltage ranging from 14V to 80V. The high-power capability of the EPC9186 supports applications such as electric scooters, small electric vehicles, agricultural machinery, forklifts and high-power drones.
The three-phase BLDC motor drive inverter uses the EPC2302 eGaN fet and four EPC2302 fets in parallel per switch position. It can deliver up to 200Apk maximum output current.
The EPC9186 contains all the necessary critical function circuits to support a complete motor drive inverter, including gate drivers, regulated auxiliary power rails for housekeeping supplies, voltage, and temperature sense, accurate current sense, and protection functions. The boards can be configured for multiphase DC–DC conversion and support both phase and leg shunt current sensing.
According to the company, the major benefits of a GaN-based motor drive are exhibited with this reference design, including lower distortion for lower acoustic noise, lower current ripple for reduced magnetic loss, lower torque ripple for improved precision and lower filtering for lower cost.
EPC provides full demonstration kits, which include interface boards that connect the inverter board to the controller board development tool for fast prototyping that is claimed to reduce design cycle times.
GaN-based inverters increase motor efficiency and can increase power capability without increasing size, claimed EPC. This enables motor systems that are smaller, lighter, less noisy, have more torque, more range, and greater precision for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications, it added.
The EPC9186 reference design board is priced at $900.00 and is available from Digi-Key.
Designers interested in replacing their silicon mosfets with a GaN solution can use the EPC GaN Power Bench’s cross-reference tool to find a suggested replacement based on their operating conditions.
EPC claims to be the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride (eGaN) based power management. eGaN fets and integrated circuits are claimed to 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 eMobility, robotics, drones and low-cost satellites.
