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lowpowerZONE Products for the week of March 31, 2008
Analog Devices Says…
ADuM5230/6132: Isolated Gate Drivers With Integrated Isolated Power
Reduce system cost and size while increasing quality and reliability for motor drives, power inverters, and plasma displays
Analog Devices, Inc., a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal-processing applications, has introduced the industry’s first isolated half-bridge gate drivers that incorporate isolated power and isolated gate drivers in one package. Competitive products, such as optocoupler isolated gate drivers, require separate power isolation. Integration eliminates components, reduces system cost and size by as much as 50 percent, and improves system reliability and quality by simplifying designs. Furthermore, the new products will come pre-approved with safety approvals normally required for discrete-based isolated power supplies.
Analog Devices’ engineers integrated an isolated power supply and isolated gate drivers in the same package by using the company’s award-winning iCoupler technology. This provides isolated high-side and low-side outputs together with ADI’s proprietary isoPower integrated, isolated power. isoPower leverages iCoupler technology’s chip-scale micro-transformers along with high-voltage CMOS to create an isolated dc-to-dc converter.
About the ADuM5230 and ADuM6132 Isolated Half-Bridge Gate Drivers
The ADuM5230 and ADuM6132 are designed for implementations that include motor drives, plasma displays, and power inverters found in power supplies and solar power converters. On both devices, the integrated, isolated converter powers both the high-side output as well as any external buffer circuitry, eliminating the cost, space, and design complexity associated with external power supply configurations.
EN-Genius Says…
The ability to get power across an isolated barrier at the same time as data is a monumental achievement and is one that took the designer – who I had the privilege of meeting – over thirteen years to get commercial results. That power on the isolated, secondary supply can, of course, be used for any external buffering of the data channels or any other secondary powering needs.
The process uses a version of Analog’s iCoupler wound transformers and an excellent article by ADI’s David Krakauer explains the process in some detail; his article is very readable so I have no need to trot out a sanitized version of the story for you here.
Of these two first products, the ADuM5230 delivers 150 mW of power at a nominal boost voltage of 15 V using a 100 kHz switching frequency. In the data paths the high- and low-side outputs are isolated from one another as well as from the input. The output power is delivered to the high side are of isolation. Each output can operate up to ±700 Vpeak relative to the input and the high-to-low side sections can operate up to 700 Vpeak isolation.
The ADuM6132 offers a 300 mW supply also at a nominal 15 V.
These two isolated devices are just a precursor to what ADI is now going to be able to do in this arena. The technology itself will be worth an incredible amount of money as these, and subsequent, couplers are specified into everything from flat-screen TVs to motors to solar power inverters. This is an extremely significant breakthrough eliminating, as it does, some really hard to work bootstrap, and similar, isolation techniques.
The ADuM5230 will be in production in April 2008 in SOIC-16 priced at $2.25 in 1000-piece lots. The ADuM6132 is sampling and will be in production in July 2008, also in SOIC-16 priced at $2.12 in 1000-piece lots.
Data Sheet ADuM5230
Data Sheet ADuM6132
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