STMicroelectronics Introduces New 45W and 150W MasterGaN Products for Energy Efficient Power Conversion Applications

     In order to facilitate the transition to high-efficiency wide-bandgap semiconductor technology, STMicroelectronics has released two integrated power system packages, MasterGaN3 and MasterGaN5, for power conversion applications up to 45W and 150W, respectively.

     Together with MasterGaN1, MasterGaN2 and MasterGaN4 for 65W to 400W applications, these two new products enable engineers designing switching power supplies, chargers, adapters, high voltage power factor correction (PFC) and DC/DC converters to choose the right GaN (GaN) devices and drive solutions offer more flexibility.

     ST's MasterGaN concept simplifies the evolution of GaN wide-bandgap power technology to replace common silicon-based MOSFETs. The new product integrates two 650V power transistors with optimized high-voltage gate drivers and associated safety protection circuitry, eliminating gate driver and circuit layout design challenges. Because GaN transistors enable higher switching frequencies, the new integrated power system package enables power supply sizes up to 80 percent smaller than silicon-based designs with high robustness and reliability.

     The two GaN power transistors of MasterGaN3 have unequal on-resistance values (Rds(on)) of 225mΩ and 450mΩ, respectively, making them suitable for soft switching and active rectification converters. In MasterGaN5, both transistors have an on-resistance value (Rds(on)) of 450mΩ, suitable for topologies such as LLC resonant and active-clamp flyback converters.

     Like other members of the MasterGaN product family, both devices have inputs compatible with 3.3V to 15V logic signals, which simplifies the integration of the product itself with main controllers such as DSP processors, FPGAs or microcontrollers, and external devices such as Hall sensors. device connection. The new products also integrate safety protection features including high- and low-side undervoltage lockout (UVLO), gate driver interlock, thermal protection and shutdown pins.

     Each MasterGaN product comes with a dedicated prototyping board to help designers jump-start new power projects. Both the EVALMASTERGAN3 and EVALMASTERGAN5 development boards contain a single-ended or complementary drive signal generator circuit. On-board an adjustable dead-time generator, and related device interfaces, allows users to use different input signals or PWM signals, connect an external bootstrap diode to improve capacitive loads, and insert a low-side for peak current topology current-sense resistor.