Events

Panel Session: Thermal Management of SiC and GaN Moderator: Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio, Editor-in-Chief of Power Electronics News – Aspencore
Speakers: Alex Lidow, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of EPC, Jonathan Dodge, Senior Application Power Expert - UnitedSiC, Salvo Coffa, Group VP & GM R&D, Automotive & Discrete Group - STMicroelectronics

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), significantly improve system efficiency and current density in various power electronics applications. SiC and GaN devices enable power designs to optimise the amount of metal in heat sinks and various housings. While WBG devices promise higher operating temperatures and greater efficiencies, there are thermal management concerns that engineers need to consider when designing these devices into a system. With the latest generation of GaN and SiC devices thermal design becomes very important.

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Dead Time Management in GaN Based Three-Phase Motor Drives Presenters: Fabio Mandrilea, Salvatore Musumecia from Politecnico di Torino and Marco Palma from Efficient Power Conversion

This paper deals with the dead time selection in Gallium Nitride (GaN) FET based three-phase brushless DC motor drives. The GaN wide-bandgap (WBG) technology enables the increase of the switching frequency compared with silicon MOSFET. In inverter applications, it is necessary to insert a dead time in the switching signals, to avoid cross conduction in the inverter leg. The dead time selection is a compromise between the switching time and the quality of the inverter output waveforms. GaN FETs can operate with dead times in the range of tens of ns. In this paper the advantages of the GaN technology in the reduction of dead time in terms of output waveforms distortion and speed ripple compared with silicon MOSFET are carried out. Furthermore, an evaluation on the dead time compensation technique compared with the hardware technology reduction is investigated demonstrating the effectiveness and the saving of software and hardware resources obtained by GaN FET devices.

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How Gallium Nitride ICs Simplify and Improve LIDAR System Design Speaker: John Glaser, Ph.D., Director of Applications

LIDAR has been in use for over 60 years in military, aerospace, robotics, and meteorological fields. Today it is experiencing a flurry of interest due to the expectation that it will be one of the key sensors to enable autonomous driving. With more than $2.1 billion raised to date, more than 85 companies are developing automotive grade LIDAR sensors using their unique approaches. This conference is the only event in the world exclusively focused on automotive LIDAR technologies and applications.

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Understanding Dynamic R_DS(on) in GaN Devices Presenters: Alejandro Pozo, Robert Strittmatter, Shengke Zhang, Alex Lidow

In this presentation, EPC expands on the wide body of experimental and theoretical knowledge of charge trapping phenomena in eGaN devices that cause dynamic on-resistance shifting (dR_DS(on)).

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Benefits of using GaN FET and ICs in BLDC motor drives Speaker: Michael de Rooij, Ph.D., Vice President, Application Engineering

The popular brushless DC (BLDC) motor is finding increasing application in robotics and drones. Such applications have special requirements such as lightweight, small size, low torque ripple, and precision control. To address these needs, inverters powering the motors need to operate at higher frequency, but require additional filtering to prevent excessive losses, EMI generation, and excess mechanical wear related to high frequency common mode and induced current flow. GaN FETs and IC's offer the ability to operate at much higher frequencies in hard-switching topologies without incurring significant losses. In this work we introduce a new monolithic GaN half-bridge ePower Stage IC that is capable of high switching frequency and can deliver up to 15 ARMS load current per phase. This high frequency reduces filtering requirements thus reducing size and weight in addition to ensuring high precision control needed for robotics while also reducing audible noise.