New family of GaN FET devices provides a smart alternative to traditional cascade and stand-alone

Texas Instruments (TI) announced a new portfolio of ready-to-use, 600-V gallium nitride (GaN), 50-mΩ and 70-mΩ power stages to support applications up to 10 kW. The LMG341x family enables designers to create smaller, more efficient and higher-performing designs compared to silicon field-effect transistors (FETs) in AC/DC power supplies, robotics, renewable energy, grid infrastructure, telecom and personal electronics applications.

TI’s family of GaN FET devices provides a smart alternative to traditional cascade and stand-alone GaN FETs by integrating unique functional and protection features to simplify design, enable greater system reliability and optimize the performance of high-voltage power supplies. With integrated <100-ns current limiting and over temperature detection, the devices protect against unintended shoot-through events and prevent thermal runaway, while system interface signals enable a self-monitoring capability.

Key features and benefits of the LMG3410R050, LMG3410R070 and LMG3411R070:

• Smaller, more efficient solutions: TI’s integrated GaN power stage doubles power density and reduces losses by 80 percent compared to silicon metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). Each device is capable of fast, 1-MHz switching frequencies and slew rates of up to 100 V/ns.
• System reliability: The portfolio is backed by 20 million hours of device reliability testing, including accelerated and in-application hard switch testing. Additionally, each device provides integrated thermal and high-speed, 100-ns overcurrent protection against shoot-through and short-circuit conditions.
• Devices for every power level: Each device in the portfolio offersa GaN FET, driver and protection features at 50 mΩ or 70 mΩ to provide a single-chip solution for applications ranging from sub-100 W to 10 kW.

Visit TI at electronica

Texas Instruments is showcasing a 10-kW cloud-enabled grid link demonstration in Hall C4 – Booth 131 at electronica at Messe München in Germany, Nov. 13-16, 2018. Developed jointly by TI and Siemens, the active demonstration uses TI’s LMG3410R050 600-V GaN FET with integrated driver and protection, enabling engineers to achieve 99 percent efficiency and up to 30 percent reduction in power component size compared to a traditional silicon design.