150A reference design targets industrial motors ...

The EPC9186 design, shown at PCIM Europe 2023 this week, uses the EPC2302 eGaN FET and supports a wide input DC voltage ranging from 14 V to 80 V. The high-power capability of the EPC9186 supports applications such as electric scooters, small electric vehicles, agricultural machinery, forklifts, and high-power drones.

The EPC9186 uses four EPC2302 FETs in parallel per switch position and can deliver up to 200 Apk maximum output current. The EPC9186 contains all the necessary critical function circuits to support a complete 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 multiphase DC–DC conversion and support both phase and leg shunt current sensing.

The GaN transistors in the design provide lower distortion for lower acoustic noise, lower current ripple for reduced magnetic loss, lower torque ripple for improved precision, and lower filtering for lower cost.

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.

"GaN-based inverters increase motor efficiency and can increase power capability without increasing size", said Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. "This enables motor systems that are smaller, lighter, less noisy, have more torque, more range, and greater precision for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications."

The EPC9186 reference design board is priced at $900.00 and is available for order from Digi-Key at www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/epc

The EPC GaN Power Bench's cross-reference tool can find a suggested replacement for a silicon part based on their unique operating conditions. The cross-reference tool can be found at: epc-co.com/epc/DesignSupport/GaNPowerBench/CrossReferenceSearch.aspx