The EPC9092 development board from Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) is a 100V maximum device voltage, 5A maximum output current, half bridge with onboard gate drives, featuring the EPC2052 enhancement mode (eGaN®) gallium-nitride FET.
The EPC9092 development board is 2" x 2" and contains two EPC2052 eGaN FETs in a half bridge configuration using the Texas Instruments LMG1205.
The board also contains all critical components and layout for optimal switching performance. There are also various probe points to facilitate simple waveform measurement and efficiency calculation. The board is designed to be easily connected into any existing converter. A block diagram of the circuit is given in the figure below.
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Thermal considerations
The EPC9092 development board showcases the EPC2052 eGaN FET. The EPC9092 is intended for bench evaluation with low ambient temperature and convection cooling. The addition of heat-sinking and forced air cooling can significantly increase the current rating of these devices, but care must be taken to not exceed the absolute maximum die temperature of 150°C.
The EPC2052 eGaN FET
The EPC2052, a 100V GaN transistor with a maximum RDS(on) of 13.5mΩ and a 74A pulsed output current for high-efficiency power conversion in a 2.25mm2 footprint.
EPC2052
Applications benefiting from this performance, small size, and low cost include 48V input power converters for computing and telecom systems, motor drives, LiDAR, LED lighting, and Class-D audio.
The EPC2052 GaN transistor measures just 1.50mm x 1.50mm (2.25mm2). Despite the small footprint, operating in a 48V to 12V buck converter, the EPC2052 achieves greater than 97% efficiency at a 10A output while switching at 500kHz and greater than 96% at a 10A output while switching at 1MHz enabling significant system size reductions.
