The NCP51810 HB GaN Driver Evaluation Board (EVB) is intended to replace the driver and power MOSFETs used in existing half−bridge or full−bridge power supplies. This EVB highlights the performance, simplicity and minimal number of components required to efficiently and reliably drive two gallium nitride power switches used in a mid−voltage, totem pole configuration. Intended applications include off−line power converter topologies such as: phase−shifted full−bridge, active clamp flyback and forward, dual active−bridge, and voltage synchronous buck.
The NCP51810 high−speed, gate driver is designed to meet the stringent requirements of driving enhancement mode (E−mode), high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) and gate injection transistor (GIT) HEMT, gallium nitride (GaN) power switches in half−bridge power topologies.
The NCP51810 offers short and matched propagation delays with advanced level shift technology providing −3.5 V to +100 V (typical) common mode voltage range for the high−side drive and −3.5 V to +3.5 V common mode voltage range for the low−side drive. In addition, the device provides stable and reliable operation when used in high dV/dt environments up to 200 V/ns.
In order to fully protect the gates of the GaN power switches against excessive voltage, both NCP51810 drive stages employ separate, dedicated voltage regulators to accurately maintain the gate−source drive signal amplitude.
The circuit offers active clamping of the driver’s bias rails thus protecting against potential gate−source over−voltage under various operating conditions. The NCP51810 offers important protection functions such as independent under−voltage lockout (UVLO), monitoring VDD bias voltage, VDDH and VDDL driver bias and thermal shutdown based on die junction temperature of the device.