Panasonic to start mass production of high-speed gate driver

Panasonic Corporation on Friday announced that it will start mass production of a high-speed gate driver optimised for driving its GaN power transistor X-GaN in November 2016. The company will also start mass production of two types of X-GaN and provide solutions in combination with high-speed gate drivers.
GaN is one of the next generation semiconductor compounds that can achieve space and energy savings when applied to transistors used in various power units. A gate driver is required to drive a transistor; however, general gate drivers for conventional silicon (Si) transistors cannot exploit the potential of GaN transistors since the gate structure of GaN transistors is different from that of Si transistors.
The new high-speed gate driver helps our X-GaN easily and safely achieves high-speed switching performance. It can drive transistors at high frequencies of up to 4 MHz and integrates the active miller clamp function [1] that prevents malfunction during high-speed switching. X-GaN achieves a 600 V breakdown enhancement mode [2] through our unique technology and features high-speed switching and low on-resistance [3]. The combination of X-GaN and dedicated high-speed gate drivers will contribute to significant space and energy savings of various power conversion units for industrial and consumer use.
X-GaN and dedicated high-speed gate drivers are suitable for various applications such as 100 W to 5 kW power supply units, inverters, data centers, mobile base stations, consumer electronics, audio-visual equipment, industrial and medical devices.
X-GaN and dedicated high-speed gate drivers will be exhibited at electronica 2016 in Munich, Germany from November 8 (Tuesday) to 11 (Friday) this year.
1: ACTIVE MILLER CLAMP: The active miller clamp is a function that directly fixes the gate voltage to the ground level to reduce voltage spikes on the gate in noisy environments that may cause malfunction of the transistor when it is switched off.
2:1ENHANCEMENT MODE: An enhancement mode is a characteristic of semiconductor devices that is normally switched off when no voltage is applied to the gate. This is also called normally-off.
3: LOW ON-RESISTANCE: On-resistance is the resistance between the drain and the source electrode of a transistor when the transistor is switched on. The lower the value is, the smaller the loss of the transistor is.
4: CURRENT COLLAPSE: Current collapse is a phenomenon in which electrons in the drain area are trapped by the energy of the high voltage applied between the drain and the source electrode. Since the trapped electrons prevent current flow from the drain to the source electrode when the transistor is switched on, the on-resistance increases.
Panasonic Corporation is a world-wide leader in the development of diverse electronics technologies and solutions for customers in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, enterprise solutions and device industries.
Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates 474 subsidiaries and 94 associated companies world-wide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.553 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2016. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company uses its technologies to create a better life and a better world for its customers.