News: Microelectronics
4 December 2023
TI expands low-power GaN portfolio, allowing AC/DC power adapters to shrink 50%
Dallas-based Texas Instruments (TI) has expanded its low-power gallium nitride (GaN) portfolio, designed to help improve power density, maximize system efficiency and shrink the size of AC/DC consumer power electronics and industrial systems. TI's overall portfolio of GaN field-effect transistors (FETs) with integrated gate drivers addresses common thermal design challenges, keeping adapters cooler while pushing more power in a smaller footprint.
“Today’s consumers want smaller, lighter and more portable power adapters that also provide fast, energy-efficient charging,” says Kannan Soundarapandian, general manager of High Voltage Power at TI. “With the expansion of our portfolio, designers can bring the power-density benefits of low-power GaN technology to more applications that consumers use every day, such as mobile phone and laptop adapters, TV power supply units, and USB wall outlets,” he adds. “TI's portfolio also addresses the growing demand for high efficiency and compact designs in industrial systems such as power tools and server auxiliary power supplies.”
The new portfolio of GaN FETs with integrated gate drivers, which includes the LMG3622, LMG3624 and LMG3626, offers what is claimed to be the industry's most accurate integrated current sensing. This functionality helps designers achieve maximum efficiency by eliminating the need for an external shunt resistor and reducing associated power losses by as much as 94% compared with traditional current-sensing circuits used with discrete GaN and silicon FETs.
Maximize energy efficiency and simplify thermal design
TI says that its GaN FETs with integrated gate drivers enable faster switching speeds, which helps to prevent adapters from overheating. Designers can reach up to 94% system efficiency for <75W AC/DC applications or above 95% system efficiency for >75W AC/DC applications. The new devices can help designers to reduce the solution size of a typical 67W power adapter by as much as 50% compared with silicon-based solutions.
The portfolio is also optimized for the most common topologies in AC/DC power conversion, such as quasi-resonant flyback, asymmetrical half-bridge flyback, inductor-inductor-converter (LLC), totem-pole power factor correction (PFC) and active clamp flyback.
For more information on the benefits of TI’s GaN for the most common AC/DC topologies, see the technical article "The benefits of low-power GaN in common AC/DC power topologies."
Long-term investment in GaN manufacturing
TI has a long history of globally owned, regionally diverse internal manufacturing operations, including wafer fabs, assembly & test factories, and bump and probe facilities across 15 worldwide sites. The firm has been investing in manufacturing GaN technology for more than 10 years.
With plans to manufacture more than 90% of its products internally by 2030, TI says that it can provide customers with dependable capacity for decades to come.
Package, availability and pricing
Production quantities of the LMG3622 and LMG3626 and pre-production quantities of the LMG3624 are available for purchase now on TI.com/GaN.
Available in an 8mm by 5.3mm, 38-pin quad flat no-lead package, pricing starts at US$3.18 in 1000-unit quantities. Evaluation modules, including the LMG3624EVM-081, start at US$250. Pin-to-pin devices without integrated current sensing, LMG3612 and LMG3616, are also available.
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