CoolGaN™ 600V Half-Bridge Evaluation Platform Featuring GaN EiceDRIVER™
Infineon now offers a 600V gallium-nitride (GaN) half-bridge evaluation board that enables easy, rapid setup and test of CoolGaN™ transistors. The generic topology can be configured for boost or buck operation, pulse testing or continuous full-power operation.
This board does not address a single application, rather it provides a platform to evaluate GaN in the universal half-bridge topology, as a building block to nearly all converter and inverter applications
Test points provide easy access to connect signals to an oscilloscope, to measure the switching performance of CoolGaN™ transistors and gate driver. This board saves the user from having to design their own gate driver and power circuit to evaluate GaN transistors.
The half-bridge circuit board features a single pwm input intended for connection of a 50Ω pulse generator. The board is powered from a single 5V supply input, which powers everything including the isolated gate driver power supplies. Deadtime between the high and low-side is initially set to 100ns, but is trimpot adjustable.
An external inductor can be connected using the supplied pluggable connector. The output and bus voltage can range up to 450V, limited by the capacitor rating. This half-bridge can switch continuous currents of 12A, and peak currents of 35A, hard or soft-switching.
Operating frequency can be up to several MHz, depending on transistor dissipation (limited to about 15W per device with appropriate heatsink and airflow).
Summary of features
- Simple GaN half-bridge with dedicated GaN driver ICs
- Capable of multi-MHz switching frequencies
- Zero reverse-recovery - can shift between hard or soft-switching
- GaN transistors feature topside cooling for high power dissipation
- Maximum power 2.5kW
Summary of benefits
- Easy setup and use
- Multiple configurations possible
- Evaluate high-frequency capabilities of GaN
- Evaluate waveforms with low ringing, overshoot, EMI
- Enables easy evaluation at multi-kilowatt power levels
