News: Microelectronics
7 September 2022
Navitas launches first GaNSense half-bridge power ICs
Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC firm Navitas Semiconductor of El Segundo, CA, USA and Dublin, Ireland has launched the first GaNSense half-bridge power ICs. These half-bridge ICs enable a new level of MHz switching frequencies while dramatically reducing the system cost and complexity compared with existing discrete solutions.
GaNSense half-bridge power ICs integrate two GaN FETs with drive, control, sensing, autonomous protection, and level-shift isolation, to create a fundamental power-stage building block for power electronics. This single-package solution is said to reduce component count and footprint by over 60% compared with existing discretes, which cuts system cost, size, weight and complexity. The integrated GaNSense technology enables what is claimed to be unprecedented autonomous protection for increased reliability and robustness, combined with loss-less current sensing for higher levels of efficiency and energy savings. The high integration levels also eliminate circuit parasitics and delays, making MHz-frequency operation a reality for a broad range of AC-DC-power topologies including LLC resonant, asymmetric half-bridge (AHB), and active-clamp flyback (ACF). The GaNSense half-bridge ICs are also a suitable fit for totem-pole PFC (power-factor correction) as well as motor-drive applications.
GaNSense half-bridge ICs are expected to have a significant impact in all Navitas target markets including mobile fast chargers, consumer power adapters, data-center power supplies, solar inverters, energy storage, and electric vehicle (EV) applications.
“After bipolar transistors were replaced by silicon MOSFETs in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the introduction of Navitas GaN technology represents the second revolution in power, with a huge increase in switching frequency and efficiency, and major reductions in system size and cost,” states CEO Gene Sheridan. “Our initial GaNFast ICs enabled an increase from 50-60kHz to 200-500kHz, and now the GaNSense half-bridges elevate those benefits to the MHz range.”
The initial family of GaNSense half-bridge ICs includes the NV6247, which is rated at 650V, 160mΩ (dual), and the NV6245C, rated at 275mΩ (dual), both in an industry-standard, low-profile, low-inductance 6mm x 8mm PQFN package. The NV6247 is immediately available in production with 16-week lead times, while the NV6245C is sampling to select customers and will be broadly available in production to all customers in fourth-quarter 2022. A wide range of package styles and power levels will become available in this GaNSense half-bridge IC family in the coming quarters.
Navitas launches third-generation GaN power IC with GaNSense technology
