Radiation-hardened 100 and 200V GaN FET power drivers

These devices power ferrite switch drivers, motor control driver circuits, heater control modules, embedded command modules, 100V and 28V power conditioning, and redundancy switching systems.

The ISL7023SEH 100V, 60A GaN FET and ISL70024SEH 200V, 7.5A GaN FET use the base die manufactured by Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC). The GaN FETs provide up to 10 orders of magnitude better performance than silicon MOSFETs while reducing package size by 50%. They also reduce power supply weight and achieve higher power efficiency with less switching power loss.

At 5mΩ (RDSON) and 14nC (QG), the ISL70023SEH enables what the company claims to be the industry’s best figure of merit (FOM). Both GaN FETs require less heat sinking due to reduced parasitic elements, and their ability to operate at high frequencies allows the use of smaller output filters, which achieve excellent efficiencies in a compact solution size. Manufactured using a MIL-PRF-38535 Class V-like flow, the ISL70023SEH and ISL70024SEH offer guaranteed electrical specifications over the military temperature range and lot-by-lot radiation assurance for high dose rate 100krad(Si) and low dose rate 75krad(Si).

The ISL70040SEH low side GaN FET driver powers the ISL7002xSEH GaN FETs with a regulated 4.5V gate drive voltage and splits the outputs to adjust FET turn-on and turn-off speeds. Operating with a supply voltage of 4.5-13.2V, the FET driver provides high current source and sink capability for high frequency operation, while offering both inverting and non-inverting gate drive to provide flexibility in power supply designs. Its fail-safe protection on the logic inputs eliminates unintentional switching when they are not actively driven.

The ISL70040SEH provides reliable performance when exposed to total ionising dose (TID) or heavy ions, and is immune to destructive single event effects (SEE) up to 16.5V with linear energy transfer (LET) of 86MeV•cm2/mg. The GaN FET driver uses a MIL-PRF-38535 Class V manufacturing flow and wafer-by-wafer radiation assurance testing.

“We are pleased to see Renesas Electronics continue Intersil’s six decades of spaceflight product development and leadership,” said Alex Lidow, EPC’s Co-founder and CEO. “It is especially gratifying and exciting to see our innovative enhancement-mode gallium nitride-on-silicon (eGaN) FET technology at work with Renesas’ new radiation-hardened GaN FET driver. These products demonstrate how eGaN technology increases the performance and reduces the cost for applications currently being served by MOSFETs.”

“Size, weight and power efficiency mean everything to designers and manufactures of launch vehicles and satellites,” said Philip Chesley, Vice President of Industrial Analogue and Power Business Division, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “The new ISL7002xSEH GaN FETs and ISL70040SEH GaN FET driver represent the most meaningful power management innovation we’ve seen in a long time for the spaceflight industry.” 

The ISL70023SEH 100V, 60A GaN FET or ISL70024SEH 200V, 7.5A GaN FET can be combined with the ISL70040SEH low side GaN FET driver and the ISL78845ASEH PWM controller to create launch vehicle and satellite switched mode power supplies.