部落格:氮化鎵技術如何擊敗矽技術
A New Approach to Design a More Efficient Vacuum Cleaner Motor Drive Inverter Using EPC9176 Evaluation Boards

A New Approach to Design a More Efficient Vacuum Cleaner Motor Drive Inverter Using EPC9176 Evaluation Boards

八月 02, 2023

Applying new design approaches to popular household appliances allows all users to contribute to reducing energy usage in everyday activities. EPC just released a new demo board, the EPC9176, a three-phase BLDC motor drive inverter targeted for more efficient, high-performance vacuum cleaner motors. 

The EPC9176 uses six of the QFN-packaged GaN ICs, the EPC23102, giving the designers a variety of GaN advantages, such as zero reverse recovery, high-frequency operation, smaller footprint, and lower switching losses, to optimize the performance of the circuit. Thanks to the high power density and the high electrical conductivity of GaN, the EPC9176 board delivers up to 18 ARMS on each leg and supports PWM switching frequencies up to 250 kHz under natural convection passive heatsink and by keeping the temperature rise below 50°C. Increasing performance of the motor-drive system in terms of quality of the current output waveforms, lesser torque oscillations, and total system efficiency are achieved.

 

The inverter board includes all the functional circuits required to support a complete inverter for vacuum cleaner motor drives as described in the following:

  • Three-phase inverter based on six EPC23102 eGaN ICs; 
  • DC link capacitors
  • Regulated auxiliary power supplies
  • Voltage, current, and temperature sensors with conditioning circuits
  • Protection functions

Pictures of the inverter board are displayed in Figure 1.

Photo of the top of  an EPC9176 board with labels detailing important sectionsPhoto of the bottom of an EPC9176 board with labels detailing important sections
Figure 1: Photo overview of the EPC9176 board highlighting the main sections

EPC9176 can be used for either sensorless or sensored motor control. 

Demo boards such as the EPC9176 offer engineers a platform to jump-start their design with a proven and reliable reference design, allowing them to focus on differentiating features and get to market quickly. For a more detailed exploration of this design, see the Application Note “How to Design a Vacuum Cleaner Motor Drive Inverter Using EPC9176 Evaluation Boards”. To get your design started, see EPC9176 for specifications, Gerber files, schematics, and bill of materials.