Motor reference design demonstrates GaN

 In Nuremberg, at PCIM Europe 2023, EPC is showing its latest GaN-based inverter reference design. Topical for this show which has an automotive and industrial undercurrent alongside power design, the EPC9186  reference design is designed for motor system performance, range, precision and torque in high power applications, such as electric scooters, small electric vehicles, agricultural machinery, forklifts and drones.

The 150A RMS three-phase BLDC motor drive inverter uses four EPC2302 eGaN FETs. The EPC9186 reference design supports a wide input range of 14 to 80V, suitable for the high power applications in machinery and high power drones, advises EPC.

The GaN FETs are used in parallel per switch position and can deliver up to 200A output current. The reference design contains all the critical function circuits to support a motor drive inverter including gate drivers, regulated auxiliary power rails for housekeeping supplies, voltage and temperature sense, accurate current sense and protection functions.  The boards can also be configured for multi-phase DC/DC conversion and support both phase and leg shunt current sensing. 

The reference design showcases the benefits of a GaN-based motor drive, such as lower distortion for lower acoustic noise, lower current ripple for reduced magnetic loss, lower torque ripple for improved precision, and lower filtering to lower the cost of the final design.  

EPC provides full demonstration kits, which include interface boards that connect the inverter board to the controller board development tool for fast prototyping that reduce design cycle times.

The EPC9186 reference design board is available now to order from Digi-Key. 

EPC also offers the GaN Power Bench cross reference tool to help designers interested in replacing silicon MOSFETs with a GaN device in a design project. Suggested replacements are based on a design's operating conditions.