Wide-bandgap power devices such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) field effect transistors (FETs) have become commercially available in recent years. Compared with high-voltage (≥600V) silicon FETs, GaN and SiC FETs generally have lower on-resistances (R_ds(on)), lower output capacitances (C_oss) and fewer/no reverse recovery charges (Q_rr). Due to their lower switching losses, you can greatly increase the efficiency of a hard-switching converter with wide-bandgap power devices.

Applying GaN FETs to resonant converters improves efficiency by reducing magnetic losses. Let’s take an inductor-inductor-capacitor series resonant converter (LLC-SRC), shown in Figure 1, as an example. An LLC-SRC uses the energy stored in the resonant inductor (L_r) to discharge MOSFET output capacitors in the input switch network. If the output capacitor voltage discharges to zero before the MOSFET gate signal goes high, you can achieve zero turn-on loss.

Figure 2 shows key waveforms of an LLC-SRC. During the MOSFET’s switching transient, i_Lr equals the maximum current flow through L_m, expressed as Equation 1:

The current I_Lm – assumed constant during dead time – discharges the C_oss of one MOSFET and charges the C_oss of another MOSFET. Assuming the C_oss of the two MOSFETs of the half bridge are the same and that you can ignore the interwinding capacitance of the transformer, Equation 2 expresses the maximum inductance with which you can achieve zero turn-on losses:

Now let’s presume you’re choosing between a GaN FET and silicon FET on the same 400V_IN to 12V_OUT conversion specification using an LLC-SRC. TI’s LMG3410 GaN device has a 70mΩ on-resistance and a 95pF output capacitance (energy related). One 70mΩ silicon FET I found has a 140pF output capacitance. If your selected turns ratio is n = 16 and the target maximum switching frequency of the LLC-SRC is 750kHz, L_m,max will be 134µH for TI’s LMG3410 and 91µH for the silicon FET with the 140pF output capacitor. As the input switches, the air gap of the LLC-SRC transformer with the silicon FET will be wider than the transformer with the LMG3410 if you apply the same core. Because of the wider air gap, there will be more eddy current losses on the transformer wires.

Figure 3 shows the thermal performance of the same LLC-SRC with different transformer air gaps under the same test conditions. As you can see, the wire losses on the transformer with the wider air gap are much higher than the one with the narrower air gap. Therefore, using GaN devices with lower C_oss can help reduce magnetic losses in resonant converters.

While in this post I discussed a benefit of using GaN devices on resonant converters – lower output capacitance enabling fewer transformer losses – TI GaN devices such as the LMG3410 offer not only low R_ds(on) and C_oss but also incorporate several protections such as overcurrent and overtemperature protection. With all of these protections, converter reliability improves greatly.

In my next post, I will discuss power-supply reliability with TI GaN devices in more detail.

Additional Resources

• More detail information of TI GaN devices can be found in the following articles:
  • Advancing power supply solutions through the promise of GaN
  • Optimizing GaN performance with an integrated driver
  • A comprehensive methodology to qualify the reliability of GaN products
• If you are interested in using TI GaN devices in your power supply designs, take a look at the following reference Design
  • 400V – 12V/500W High-Frequency LLC Series Resonant Converter reference design (PMP20289).
  • GaN FET-Based CCM Totem-Pole Bridgeless PFC