DESIGN
POWER: PCIM REVIEW
Electric vehicles Texas Instruments launched the
the first 100W/in3 data centre power supply. The xFusion 3kW power supply with 80 Plus Titanium efficiency uses GaN Systems’ power transistor which have demonstrated an increase in performance for products with power levels from 800W to 6kW. In addition to the high power density and efficiency of 96%, the power supply supports 90 to 264V DC and 180 to 300V AC input, 12V output. It is compact, measuring just 68 x 183 x 40.5mm. For each set of 10 racks in the data centre, GaN-based PSUs can increase profits by $3m, reduce both the cost of operation and CO2 emissions output by more than 100 metric tons per year. Companies designing with GaN are doubling the power density of legacy PSUs, reaching power densities up to 100W/in3 with 96+% efficiency, resulting in power supplies half the size and half the power loss compared to silicon-based power supplies, says GaN Systems. Rohm Semiconductors also highlighted the use of GaN in data centres. The company has begun mass production of 650V GaN HEMTs. The GNP1070TC-Z and GNP1150TCA-Z were jointly developed by Ancora Semiconductors, an affiliate of Delta Electronics. The latest members of Rohm’s EcoGaN range have built-in ESD protection element to improvs electrostatic breakdown resistance up to 3.5kV to improve reliability. The GaN HEMTs’ high-speed switching characteristics also contribute to greater miniaturisation of peripheral components, added Rohm.
UCC5880-Q1 reinforced isolated gate driver, which reduces switching losses to extend an EV’s battery range by seven miles per charge or the equivalent of 1,000 miles per year.
As electric vehicle (EV) design moves towards higher voltage systems (800V) based on SiC, efficient, isolated gate drivers are required for reliable traction inverters to maximise the drive range of vehicles based on high voltage semiconductors, explained Laszio Balogh, Senior Technologist for high voltage power at TI. "Making SiC systems succeed requires an ecosystem, with gate drivers, sensors, all working together," he said. He outlined three key goals of electronics designers to address the charge time of EVs. These are efficiency, reliability - bearing in mind that gate drivers operate at 20kHz frequency or perform 20,000 switching operations per second, power density and design complexity. The UCC5880-Q1 reinforced isolated gate driver complies with ISO 26262 for functional safety to ASIL. The driver's real time variable gate drive IP provides the flexibility when running the SiC to extend the driver per charge. By varying the gate-drive strength in real time, in steps between 20 and 5.0A, designers can improve system efficiency with the UCC5880-Q1 gate driver as much as 2% by minimising SiC switching power losses.
18 ELECTRONICSPECIFIER.COM
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