Silicon Labs reduces power system cost and complexity with 5 kV isolated gate drivers

AUSTIN, USA: Silicon Laboratories Inc., a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, has expanded its popular ISOpro family to include ISOdriver isolated gate drivers that support up to 5 kV isolation ratings.

Silicon Labs’ new 5 kV-certified Si82xx isolated gate drivers reduce cost and complexity for safety-critical industrial systems and universal-powered systems with 120/220 volt supplies.

Target applications include isolated switch mode and uninterruptible power supplies, test and measurement equipment, robotic assemblies, industrial drives, industrial and electric vehicle motor controls, battery and solar inverters, wind turbines, air conditioning systems, plasma displays and electronic lighting ballasts.

“Leveraging Silicon Labs’ proprietary and patented RF-based isolation technology, the new ISOdriver ICs combine advanced digital isolation and gate driver capabilities into a single-chip solution,” said Diwakar Vishakhadatta, isolation product line director at Silicon Labs.

“The high level of integration we’ve achieved enables developers to simplify their bill of materials, improve efficiency and reduce system cost by eliminating the need for up to 12 external components compared to optocoupler or gate-drive transformer solutions, while at the same time improving system reliability to industrial standards by using CMOS technology.”

The new 5 kV Si82xx isolated gate drivers include the Si822x optocoupler-input-compatible devices and the Si823x digital-input devices. The Si822x gate drivers feature a passive diode input type that emulates an optocoupler’s input, while providing all the performance benefits that accompany CMOS-based digital isolation. The Si822x devices significantly improve system reliability by providing a functional upgrade for popular optocoupler gate drivers.

The Si822x and Si823x devices feature ultra-fast 50 ns propagation delays – more than five times faster than common optocoupler plus gate driver solutions – for better timing margins and higher system efficiency. Based on mainstream CMOS process technology, ISOdriver devices exhibit none of the performance degradations over time and temperature which are common with optocoupler solutions.

Supporting gate drive voltages of up to 24 V and peak output current ranging from 0.5 to 4.0 A, the ISOdrivers deliver best-in-class drive strength for both MOSFET and insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) applications, ensuring fast turn-off and turn-on of external switching transistors for maximum efficiency.

For design flexibility, the new ISOdriver devices are available in high-side/low-side and dual driver versions. The high-side/low-side versions have built-in protection against overlap timing errors, ensuring reliable operation for safety-critical applications. In addition, built-in programmable dead-time control allows the user to tune the power supply system for peak system efficiency – a key feature for high-power applications such as motor control.

The Si82xx ISOdriver isolated gate driver ICs are available today. Pricing in 10K quantities for Si82xx devices with a 5 kV isolation rating begins at $1.16. The OPENLPPOL-EVB evaluation board is available now for $99.