Texas Instruments (TI) has introduced the industry's first 650V three-phase GaN IPM for 250W motor drive applications. The new GaN IPM addresses many of the design and performance compromises engineers typically face when designing major home appliances and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.
The DRV7308 GaN IPM enables more than 99% inverter efficiency, optimized acoustic performance, reduced solution size and lower system costs. It is on display at the Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management (PCIM) Conference, held from June 11-13, 2024, in Nuremberg, Germany.
High-voltage home appliances and HVAC systems
“Designers of high-voltage home appliances and HVAC systems are striving to meet higher energy-efficiency standards to support environmental sustainability goals around the world,” said Nicole Navinsky, Motor Drives Business Unit Manager at TI.
Nicole Navinsky adds, “They are also addressing consumer demand for systems that are reliable, quiet and compact. With TI's new GaN IPM, engineers can design motor driver systems that deliver all of these expectations and operates at peak efficiency.”
- Improve system efficiency and reliability with TI GaN
Worldwide efficiency standards for appliances and HVAC systems such as SEER, MEPS, Energy Star and Top Runner are becoming increasingly stringent. The DRV7308 helps engineers meet these standards, leveraging GaN technology to deliver more than 99% efficiency and improve thermal performance, with 50% reduced power losses compared to existing solutions.
The DRV7308 achieves industry-low dead time and low propagation delay
In addition, the DRV7308 achieves industry-low dead time and low propagation delay, both less than 200ns, enabling higher pulse-width modulation (PWM) switching frequencies that reduce audible noise and system vibration.
These advantages plus the higher power efficiency and integrated features of the DRV7308 also reduce motor heating, which can improve reliability and extend the lifetime of the system.
- Advanced integration and high power density reduce solution size and costs
Supporting the trend of more compact home appliances, the DRV7308 helps engineers develop smaller motor drive systems. Enabled by GaN technology, the new IPM delivers high power density in a 12mm-by-12mm package, making it the industry's smallest IPM for 150W to 250W motor-drive applications.
Because of its high efficiency, the DRV7308 eliminates the need for an external heatsink, resulting in motor drive inverter printed circuit board (PCB) size reduction of up to 55% compared to competing IPM solutions. The integration of a current sense amplifier, protection features and inverter stage further reduces solution size and cost.
This high-efficiency, high-voltage GaN IPM is the latest example of TI innovations to help solve engineering challenges and transform motor designs.
TI's reliable high-voltage technology at PCIM 2024
Visitors to PCIM can see new products and solutions from TI that are enabling the transition to a more sustainable future with reliable high-voltage technology in Hall 7, Booth 652.
In addition to the DRV7308 GaN IPM, TI highlights at PCIM include:
- Next-generation electric vehicle (EV) propulsion system: TI is demonstrating a new 800V, 750kW SiC-based scalable traction inverter system for EV six-phase motors, in collaboration with EMPEL Systems. The demonstration features high power density and efficiency using TI's high-performance isolated gate drivers, isolated DC/DC power modules and Arm® Cortex®-R MCUs.
- TI's Manager of high-voltage power systems applications, Sheng-Yang Yu, will speak on June 11 in the Markt & Technik panel discussion: ‘Will SiC ultimately Hold its Own against GaN?.’
- TI's Manager of renewable energy systems, Harald Parzhuber, will speak on June 12 in Bodo's Power Systems panel discussion: ‘GaN Wide Bandgap Design, the Future of Power.’
