Gate Drive Optocouplers for High-Speed SiC FETs Deliver up to 2.5A

Avago Technologies today unveiled two new sets of high speed gate drive optocoupler devices, the ACPL-P/W345 and ACPL-P/W346. These devices are 1A and 2.5A gate drive optocouplers designed to protect and drive power MOSFETs and silicon-carbide (SiC) MOSFETs for high-switching frequency applications such as inverter, motor control, and switching power supply. Compared to Avago's previous generation devices, the ACPL-P/W345 and ACPL-P/W346 are twice as fast in terms of propagation delay.

Technical highlights include; 120ns maximum propagation delay; 2.5A maximum peak output current (ACPL-P/W346); 1.0A maximum peak output current (ACPL-P/W345); rail-to-rail output voltage; under voltage lock-out (ULVO) with hysteresis; 50kV/us minimum high common mode rejection (CMR); small stretched SO6 package minimizing PCB board space and cost.

"Avago continues to bring value to customers by setting new standards for optocoupler performance," said Kheng-Jam Lee, marketing director of Avago's Isolation Products Division. "With the introduction of the ACPL-P/W345 and ACPL-P/W346, Avago is in the forefront of development of new high speed gate drive optocouplers capable of supporting SiC MOSFET for next-generation energy-efficient motor control and power conversion applications."

"We have evaluated Avago's ACPL-W346 driving our first and second generation SiC MOSFETs. The fast switching performance of this new gate driving solution achieves very high power conversion efficiency," said Paul Kierstead, Director of Power Marketing with Cree, Inc.. "More importantly, this solution provides customers with a cost effective and easily available gate driving solution for Cree's SiC MOSFETs."

Samples of the ACPL-P345, ACPL-W345, ACPL-P346, and ACPL-W346 and evaluation board are now available.