Digital Control for GaN Switches

Author:
Ally Winning

Date
02/16/2022

 PDF
Wise-integration has introduced a 650V, enhancement mode, half-bridge power switch and control firmware.

Digital control of power has been used in the silicon domain for well over a decade, and the benefits are now widely recognized. The ability to quickly adjust output on-the-fly to suit the load conditions has provided a large boost in efficiency for power circuits. That is not the only benefit - digital power makes it easier to sequence and synchronize multiple voltage rails, it cuts down the BoM, offers more ways to react to faults, provides easier configuration of thresholds and better monitoring of operating temperatures to allow dynamic cooling.

 

Modern applications, such as datacentres and electric vehicles, demand even more efficient and higher density power ICs and have more complex power requirements. The introduction of GaN has helped considerably with density and efficiency, but could digital power provide GaN devices with a further efficiency boost, while adding more flexibility for control of the power circuit?

 

Wise-integration seem to think so. The French company have taken a dual-pronged approach to the topic. On the hardware side, the company has launched a 650V, enhancement mode, half-bridge power switch. The WiseGan device is a half bridge power GaN device in one package with integrated drivers compatible with digital control. All three parts of the circuit are controlled by a single microcontroller, rather than using separate analog control over each of the three individual parts. This method of control cuts down on the number of components required. The second part of the solution is the WiseWare firmware required for the microcontroller to provide the control algorithms to the power supply. Together the two parts offer a 60% power density increase over a standard AC-DC GaN circuit, and operate at up to 96% efficiency in the output range from 30W to 3kW.

 

According to Thierry Bouchet, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Wise-integration it makes the design process much easier for the customer, while offering increased efficiency over other solutions. He explained, “Today, the main way that is used to control the three main stages of a power supply, the PFC, LLC and synchronous rectification, is to use a separate controller for each stage. Wise-integration has replaced those three controllers with a single microcontroller that manages the full power supply using the supplied WiseWare firmware. This improves the efficiency of the power supply by up to 3% over other GaN solutions, while reducing the cost and making the physical design less complex”.

 

Wise-integration will launch 5 new products this year, starting with a 350mΩ Rds(on) switch that is available now. A 175mΩ and a 120mΩ version will be released in the first half of the year and the 70mΩ, and a 50mΩ variant will be released in the second half. The devices will be fabricated on TSMC’s GaN process and packaged by ASE in a low inductance PQFN package that measures only 6mm x 8mm.

 

As Wise-integration is targetting the consumer industry first, and Asia is the largest producer of consumer electronics, the company has formed a partnership with EDOM Technology, a leading distributor and solutions provider in Asia, to help with its expansion into the area. The partnership will introduce Wise-integration's GaN power transistor and digital control capabilities to EDOM's distribution network and customer-support capability throughout Asia. In addition, Wise-integration and EDOM Technology will collaborate on GaN designs using the WiseGan ICs and WiseWare digital control.   

 

https://www.wise-integration.com/

RELATED

 


-->