650-V half-bridge evaluation cards target GaN drivers and transistors

GaN Systems has developed two 650-V half-bridge evaluation cards (30 A and 60 A) to evaluate gallium nitride (GaN) drivers and GaN transistors in a variety of applications. The company claims these daughter cards are the industry’s first to provide programmable overcurrent protection with adjustable thresholds and programmable source current for adjustable turn-on slew rate.

The daughter cards are available in two power levels: up to 3 kW (GS-EVB-HB-66508B-RN) and up to 6 kW (GS-EVB-HB-66516T-RN) and include the Renesas RAA226110 low-side GaN FET driver with programmable source current and adjustable overcurrent protection.

The RAA226110 is designed to drive enhancement-mode  (E-mode) GaN FETs in isolated and non-isolated topologies, offering a wide supply voltage range from 6.5V to 18 V. The device offers both inverting (INB) and non-inverting (IN) inputs to meet requirements for inverting and non-inverting gate drives with a single device.

The evaluation cards operate with a GaN Systems’ motherboard for easier set-up and plug-and-play operation. Features include an integrated VGS regulation at 2 MHz fSW and programmable overcurrent protection with adjustable thresholds of 40 mV/80 mV/120 mV and differential current sensing as well as programmable source current for adjustable turn-on slew rate (0.3A, 0.75A, or 2A).

The GS-EVB-HB-66508B-RN 650-V 30-A GaN half-bridge and GS-EVB-HB-66516T-RN 650-V 60-A GaN half-bridge demonstration boards both feature the RAA226110 gate drive. The evaluation kits consists of two GaN Systems 650-V GaN E-mode transistors (GS66508B for the 30-A version and GS66516T for the 60-A version) and all necessary circuits including half-bridge gate drivers, isolated power supplies, and optional heat sink to form a functional half-bridge power stage. With this demo board, designers can evaluate the GaN E-modes performance in any half bridge-based topology, either with the universal mother board (P/N: GS665MB-EVB) or their own system design.

These power stage designs can be used in a wide range of applications, said GaN Systems, from enterprise 1U power supplies (up to 5 kW), high-power density bridgeless totem pole PFCs, PV inverters, energy storage systems, motor drives, and automotive DC/DC converters and onboard chargers.

The company also recently introduced four integrated GaN power module evaluation kits that make it easy to evaluate GaN power devices for high-power applications. These include traction inverters, industrial motors, energy storage systems, PV inverters, and a variety of lower power board and brick power supplies. The four evaluation kits include: a 100-V driver GaN DC/DC power stage module; 650 V, 150 A half-bridge intelligent power module (IPM); 650 V, 150 A full-bridge module and driver, and 650 V, 300 A 3-phase module and driver.