New Industry Products

Analog Devices Announces 4A Dual-Channel Gate Driver Integrated with Digital Isolation Technology

May 05, 2010 by Jeff Shepard

Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) introduced a 4A dual-channel isolated gate driver integrated with ADI’s iCoupler digital isolation technology. The new dual-channel gate driver is said to be effective for driving high-voltage switching FETs (field-effect transistors) in synchronous rectification dc-dc converter applications.

By integrating digital isolation and a 4A gate driver into a small, industry standard SOIC (small-outline integrated circuit) package, the ADuM3220 is said to replace traditional discrete gate driver solutions, saving up to 70% of the board space and reducing costs by up to 30% for small dc-dc module designs.

Discrete offerings use separate components for isolation and gate drive, including large, difficult to use pulse transformers and optocouplers that provide poor performance and degrade over time. According to ADI, the new ADuM3220 dual-channel gate driver offers better propagation delay (60ns max) and channel-to-channel skew (5ns max) than competitive products, along with excellent reliability associated with CMOS-based digital isolation.

"Working closely with our power supply customers, we learned that many designers use discrete isolators and gate drivers, which can take up quite a lot of board space," said Peter Henry, Vice President, Power Management Products, Analog Devices. "ADI’s iCoupler digital isolation technology integrates the gate driver function with two channels of high-performance digital isolation technology; this radically simplifies design and reduces design costs."

The ADuM3220 4-A dual-channel isolated gate driver provides two independent isolation channels and operates with an input supply voltage ranging from 3.0 to 5.5V, providing compatibility with lower voltage systems. Each output may be operated from 7 to 18V to support typical gate driver voltages for synchronous dc-to-dc converters. The outputs of the ADuM3220 dual-channel gate driver default to a logic-low state, preventing both gate drivers from being on at the same time and eliminating potential damage of the high-voltage FETs. In addition, the ADuM3220 dual-channel gate driver operates over a wide -40 to 125°C temperature range.

The ADuM3220 dual-channel gate driver offers the benefit of true galvanic isolation between the input and each output, enabling voltage translation and safety isolation across the isolation barrier. The ADuM3220 has 2.5 kVrms isolation rating with UL (Underwriters Laboratories), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and VDE (Verband der Elektrotechnik) certifications pending.

The AduM3220 is priced at $1.84 in 1,000 piece quantities.