TI expands GaN FET family

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has expanded its low-power gallium nitride (GaN) portfolio, with a new family of GaN field-effect transistors (FETs). These GaN FET devices can improve power density and system efficiency, while shrinking the size of AC/DC consumer power electronics and industrial systems.

They can reduce the solution size of a typical 67-W power adapter by as much as 50% compared to silicon-based solutions, according to TI.

(Source: Texas Instruments Inc.)

TI’s portfolio of GaN FETs with integrated gate drivers also help solve common thermal design challenges, said the company, and keep adapters cooler while pushing more power in a smaller footprint.

“With the expansion of our portfolio, designers can bring the power-density benefits of low-power GaN technology to more applications that consumers use every day, such as mobile phone and laptop adapters, TV power-supply units, and USB wall outlets,” said Kannan Soundarapandian, TI’s general manager of High Voltage Power, in a statement.

The new portfolio of GaN FETs with integrated gate drivers, includes the LMG3622, LMG3624 and LMG3626, claiming the industry’s most accurate integrated current sensing. This functionality eliminates the need for an external shunt resistor and reduces associated power losses by as much as 94% when compared to traditional current-sensing circuits used with discrete GaN and silicon FETs, TI said.

These GaN FETs with integrated gate drivers enable faster switching speeds, which helps with overheating in adapters. For example, by using these devices, designers can achieve up to a 94% system efficiency for <75-W AC/DC applications or above 95% system efficiency for >75-W AC/DC applications.

These devices are optimized for common topologies in AC/DC power conversion, such as quasi-resonant flyback, asymmetrical half-bridge flyback, inductor-inductor-converter, totem-pole power factor correction and active clamp flyback.

Production quantities of the LMG3622 and LMG3626 and pre-production quantities of the LMG3624 are available for purchase now on TI.com/GaN. Available in an 8 × 5.3-mm, 38-pin quad flat no-lead package, pricing starts at $3.18 in quantities of 1,000. Prices start at $250 for evaluation modules, including the LMG3624EVM-081. Pin-to-pin devices without integrated current sensing, LMG3612 and LMG3616, are also available.