Texas Instruments enters medium-voltage gallium nitride to further replace the traditional silicon-based market

Recently, Texas Instruments launched new 100V gallium nitride-LMG2100 and LMG3100 series products, filling the company's gap in the mid-voltage market around 100V. With the help of new generation gallium nitride and thermally enhanced double-sided cooling packaging technology, the thermal design of medium voltage applications can be simplified and ultra-high power density greater than 1.5kW/in3 can be achieved.

Dr. Yang Fei, head of Texas Instruments’ gallium nitride business, introduced the product and the new trends of gallium nitride in the medium-voltage market in detail.

Texas Instruments’ Broad Gallium Nitride Product Portfolio

Power density is a consistent trend in power supply design

Yang Fei said that as applications in AI, electric vehicles, energy and other industries become more and more complex, the power consumption of processors and systems is increasing, which also puts forward higher requirements for power grids and power supplies. While the power is increasing, the size of the entire system has not changed. For example, the server is still a traditional rack, and the size left for the power supply in the car remains unchanged. The new energy industry also requires equipment to become increasingly miniaturized and integrated.

Increases in power density are often tied to developments in other areas such as efficiency or cost. In general, fundamental improvements in power conversion efficiency reduce solution size. Reducing size has the knock-on effect of cost savings from less physical material, fewer components, a better cost structure, more solution integration, and a lower total cost of ownership.

Gallium nitride, one of the representatives of the third generation of semiconductors, has lower switching losses and higher switching frequency than traditional silicon devices. Higher switching frequency enables the selection of smaller inductors, transformers and capacitors, thereby increasing the power density of the power system.

"The specific system efficiency improvement depends on the topology. For example, for micro-inverters, the efficiency of silicon devices is generally 94% to 96%. If gallium nitride is used, it can easily reach 98%." Yang Fei gave an example.

Of course there are other applications, such as co-drive systems. The electric drive system can optimize parameters such as motor, output THD, heat dissipation and cost by increasing the power supply design frequency.

Power Optimizer Block Diagram

Highly integrated gallium nitride

Yang Fei said that due to the high frequency of gallium nitride, the dv/dt and di/dt of the switch are quickly switched, which brings huge challenges to the design of drivers and PCB wiring.

“TI’s approach is to integrate gallium nitride power devices and drivers. By optimizing internal parameters and drivers, the advantages of gallium nitride can be fully utilized. Users do not need to consider additional layout and wiring issues, and at the same time, they can ensure product consistency. Sex." Yang Fei explained.

LMG2100 product function diagram

According to data given by TI, compared with traditional silicon, the gallium nitride system using integrated drivers can reduce the PCB area by 40%. On the one hand, it is achieved through gallium nitride, and on the other hand, it simplifies the driver design through high integration.

In addition to driving, TI's gallium nitride products also integrate many protection functions, including overcurrent, short circuit, undervoltage, current detection, overtemperature protection, etc., such as internal bootstrap power supply voltage clamping to prevent GaN FET from overheating. drive.

The other is TI's innovation in packaging. For this new product, TI uses double-sided cooling packaging technology to enhance heat dissipation, thereby further increasing power density.

Yang Fei said that DC/DC conversion module manufacturers have now accepted the advantages of gallium nitride and are in various development processes. Each manufacturer has unique topology, optimization and other different considerations, so the current compatibility is unclear. There is little demand for replacement, and customers do not need compatibility with products from different manufacturers. Therefore, higher-integrated products are currently customers’ favorite method and can accelerate their innovation process.

Wide Applications of Medium Voltage Gallium Nitride

In TI's "GaN will revolutionize electronic design for four medium-voltage applications" white paper, TI pointed out that in addition to the high-voltage GaN (rated value >= 600V) already adopted by the industry, new medium-voltage GaN solutions (rated value 80V-200V ) are also becoming increasingly popular to enable higher power densities and efficiencies in power systems that were previously unsupportable by high-voltage GaN.

TI cited four potential application hot spots for medium-voltage gallium nitride. Including DC/DC in solar microinverters, power optimizers, power supply units (PSUs) in servers, intermediate bus converters (IBCs), battery backup units, telecom power supplies, and motor drives.

Server power supply block diagram

In addition, scenarios including general DC/DC conversion, Class D audio amplifiers, and battery testing and formation equipment can make full use of the high switching frequency and low power loss characteristics of gallium nitride. For example, for precision servo systems, gallium nitride can reduce circuit size, increase torque and reduce ripple. For Class D audio amplifiers, gallium nitride can increase the operating frequency while maintaining high efficiency and reducing signal distortion.

In order to fully demonstrate the advantages of gallium nitride, TI also launched six reference designs in one go, covering all aspects of applications.

Reference designs at a glance

Summarize

Gallium nitride is being widely used in mobile phone chargers, which proves that the market is increasingly accepting the product and becoming more aware of its high power density characteristics. As large power suppliers such as TI enter the medium-voltage market, it is believed that more and more power-related scenarios will try gallium nitride, and its advantages will not only be fully reflected in fast charging.