Texas Instruments (TI), a leader in high-voltage semiconductor solutions, has maximized traction inverter efficiency and extended electric vehicle driving range by 1,000 miles (about 1,600 km) per year with a new SiC gate driver.

On the 11th, TI held an online press conference and introduced the new reinforced isolation gate driver 'UCC5880-Q1'.

Mark Ng, general manager of TI's Electric Vehicle and Powertrain business unit, who was in charge of the announcement that day, said that TI is strengthening its strategy in four areas related to electrification: △maximizing driving range, △improving charging speed, △reasonable price, and △safety, and that this was achieved through the new product, the reinforced insulated gate driver.

The new UCC5880-Q1 reinforced insulated gate driver is claimed to increase the efficiency of traction inverters by 2 percent and improve driving range by up to 7 miles per charge. This means that an electric vehicle that charges three times a week could gain an additional 1,000 miles (about 1,600 km) of range per year.

The UCC5880-Q1 reduces power loss by applying SiC (silicon carbide) material, and the real-time variable intensity driver system can adjust the driving intensity between 20A and 5A according to the situation, which increases efficiency even when the electric vehicle repeatedly starts and stops at low speeds rather than high speeds.

Additionally, safety is ensured through safety diagnosis and protection functions in compliance with ISO26262.

The need for reliability and power performance in electric vehicles is growing, as increased efficiency has a direct impact on improving driving range per charge.

On the other hand, considering that most traction inverters already operate at over 90% efficiency, it is not easy to increase efficiency further from the current level, so the 2% increase in this product is considered a major technological advancement.

Additionally, the UCC5880-Q1's SPI programming capability and integrated monitoring and protection features can reduce design complexity as well as external component costs.

Engineers can use the SiC electric vehicle traction inverter reference design to reduce component count and rapidly prototype efficient traction inverter systems.

The customizable and tested reference design includes the UCC5880-Q1, a bias supply power module, real-time control MCU, and high-precision sensing.

A prototype version of the UCC5880-Q1, compliant with the automotive functional safety ISO26262 standard, is available now exclusively from TI.com in a 10.5-mm x 7.5-mm 32-pin shrink small-outline package (SSOP).

1.00Available starting at $5.90 for 0 units, the new UCC5880-Q1 evaluation module is available for $249.