The GaN IPM was developed to address many of the design and performance compromises engineers typically face when designing major home appliances and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems.
According to TI, the DRV7308 GaN IPM enables more than 99% inverter efficiency, optimised acoustic performance, reduced solution size and lower system costs.
“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. “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 delivers all of these expectations and operates at peak efficiency.”
Worldwide efficiency standards for appliances and HVAC systems such as SEER, MEPS, Energy Star and Top Runner are becoming increasingly stringent, and the DRV7308 will help engineers to meet these standards by leveraging GaN technology to deliver more than 99% efficiency and improve thermal performance, with 50% reduced power losses compared to existing solutions.
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.
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.
In addition, the integration of a current sense amplifier, protection features and inverter stage further reduces solution size and cost.
