National Semiconductor intros industry's first 100V half-bridge gate driver for enhancement-mode gallium-nitride power FETs

SANTA CLARA, USA: National Semiconductor Corp. introduced the industry's first 100V half-bridge gate driver optimized for use with enhancement-mode Gallium-Nitride (GaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) in high-voltage power converters. National's new LM5113 is a highly-integrated, high-side and low-side GaN FET driver that reduces component count by 75 percent and shrinks printed circuit board (PCB) area by up to 85 percent compared to discrete driver designs.

Designers of power bricks and communications infrastructure equipment require high power efficiency in the smallest form factor. Enhancement-mode GaN FETs enable new levels of efficiency and power density compared to standard metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) due to their low on-resistance (Rdson) and gate charge (Qg) as well as their ultra-small footprint, but driving them reliably presents significant new challenges. National's LM5113 driver integrated circuit (IC) eliminates these challenges, enabling power designers to realize the benefits of GaN FETs in a variety of popular power topologies.

Meeting the stringent gate drive requirements of enhancement-mode GaN FETs requires multiple discrete devices and significant circuit and PCB design effort. National's LM5113 fully-integrated enhancement-mode GaN FET driver greatly reduces circuit and PCB design effort and delivers industry-best power density and efficiency.

"National's LM5113 bridge driver helps designers unleash the performance of eGaN FETs by simplifying the design," said Alex Lidow, co-founder and CEO for Efficient Power Conversion Corp. "The LM5113 dramatically reduces component count, and paired with our eGaN FETs, enables a tremendous PCB area savings and higher level of power density versus equivalent MOSFET-based designs."

Technical features of the LM5113 bridge driver
National's LM5113 is a 100V bridge driver for enhancement-mode GaN FETs. Using proprietary technology, the device regulates the high side floating bootstrap capacitor voltage at approximately 5.25V to optimally drive enhancement-mode GaN power FETs without exceeding the maximum gate-source voltage rating.

The LM5113 also features independent sink and source outputs for flexibility of the turn-on strength with respect to the turn-off strength. A low impedance pull down path of 0.5 Ohms provides a fast, reliable turn-off mechanism for the low threshold voltage enhancement-mode GaN power FETs, helping maximize efficiency in high frequency power supply designs.

The LM5113 features an integrated high-side bootstrap diode, further minimizing PCB real estate. The LM5113 also provides independent logic inputs for the high-side and low-side drivers, enabling flexibility for use in a variety of both isolated and non-isolated power supply topologies.