Power Integrations (PI) continues to advance the state-of-the-art in high-voltage gallium nitride
(GaN) technology development and commercial deployment. As a result, PI has announced the
development of a new 1250 V GaN switch, which extends the efficiency benefits of GaN to a
much wider range of applications, including many currently served by silicon carbide (SiC)
technology. The 1250 V powiGaN is now part of the company’s InnoSwitch3-EP product
offerings, which includes 750 V, 900 V and 1250 V GaN varieties.
According to PI, 1250 V powiGaN based InnoSwitch3-EP is the world’s highest voltage, single-switch GaN power supply IC. The new device significantly reduces switching losses to less than a third compared to equivalent silicon devices, achieving power conversion efficiency as high as 93% and delivering up to 85 W without the need for a heatsink.
Consequently, in challenging power grid environments, InnoSwitch3-EP ICs will enable designers to confidently specify an operating peak voltage of 1000 V, providing significant headroom for industrial applications and offering a robust defense against grid instability, surge, and other power perturbations, said the maker. Per datasheet, all InnoSwitch3-EP devices feature synchronous rectification control, a valley-switching discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) andcontinuous conduction mode (CCM) flyback controller. FluxLink communication technology enables the IC package to bridge the isolation barrier, eliminating the need for optocouplers.
In addition, the InnoSwitch3-EP power devices combine primary and secondary controllers
and safety-rated feedback into a single IC (Figure 1) to dramatically simplify the design and
manufacture of flyback power converters, particularly those requiring high efficiency and/or
compact size. Furthermore, the high-voltage powiGaN power IC incorporates multiple protection
features including line over and undervoltage protection, output overvoltage and over-current
limiting, and over-temperature shutdown. Per the manufacturer’s datasheet, devices are available with standard and peak power delivery options, and commonly used auto-restart protection behavior.
A reference design, DER-1025, describing a 12 V, 6 A flyback converter is available for free download.
