120V/4A half-bridge gate driver raises robustness and efficiency in automotive applications

Nexperia‘s new series of high-performance gate driver ICs are designed for driving both high-side and low-side N-channel MOSFETs in a synchronous buck or half-bridge configuration. These devices deliver high current output and excellent dynamic performance, boosting efficiency and robustness in applications. The automotive-qualified NGD4300-Q100 is suitable for electronic power steering and power converters, while the NGD4300 has been designed for use with DC-DC converters in consumer devices, servers and telecommunications equipment as well as for micro-inverters used in various industrial applications. 

The floating high-side driver in these ICs can operate from bus voltages up to 120V and use a bootstrap supply with an integrated diode, features which simplify overall system design and help to reduce PCB size. They can deliver up to 4A (peak) source and 5A of sink current to guarantee short rise and fall times even for heavy loads. The gate driver has a low 13ns delay and offers excellent channel-to-channel delay matching of only 1ns. These delays are significantly lower than for similar competing gate drivers and help to minimise dead-time by maximising switching duty-cycle. 4ns rise and 3.5ns (typical) fall times help to deliver higher efficiency and support high frequency and fast system control. These gate drivers accept input control signals complying with both TTL and CMOS logic levels.

These ICs are fabricated using a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process. This allows the negative voltage tolerance of the HS pin to extend to -5V, significantly reducing the risk of damage caused by system parasitic component and unexpected spikes. The NGD4300 and NGD4300-Q100 are available in a choice of DFN-8, SO-8 and HSO-8 packages to offer engineers the flexibility to trade-off between device size and thermal performance, depending on application requirements.