Industry’s first 100-V gate driver for eGaN FETs

The LM5113 is the industry’s first 100-V half-bridge gate driver optimized for use with enhancement-mode GaN power field-effect transistors (FETs) in high-voltage power converters. National’s new LM5113 is a highly-integrated, high-side and low-side GaN FET driver that reduces component count by 75% and shrinks printed circuit board area by up to 85% compared to discrete driver designs.

The half-bridge gate driver meets the stringent requirements of enhancement-mode GaN FETs. Using proprietary technology, the device regulates the high side floating bootstrap capacitor voltage at approximately 5.25 V to optimally drive eGaN power FETs without exceeding the maximum gate-source voltage rating. It offers independent sink and source outputs for flexibility of the turn-on strength with respect to the turn-off strength. A low impedance pull down path of 0.5 Ω provides a fast turn-off mechanism for the voltage, and features an integrated high-side bootstrap diode to further reduce PCB real estate. The device also provides independent logic inputs for the high-side and low-side drivers. ($1.65 ea/1,000 – production qty available in September.)