Used in power supplies, solar inverters, and EV/HEV chargers

Silicon Labs announced the launch of a new isolated gate driver that meets critical requirements for state-of-the-art power supply designs. Based on Silicon Labs' proven digital isolation technology, the new Si827x ISOdriver family offers the highest noise immunity among commercially available gate drivers.

The Si827x driver, equipped with CMTI (Common Mode Transient Immunity), is ideal for use in high-speed switching, potentially noisy power supply systems. This product family can be used in power supplies for servers, computers, and base stations, as well as in solar inverters and microinverters, Class D amplifiers, motor controllers, and chargers for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles (EVs/HEVs).

For those designing power supplies, the design criterion considered above all else is power per unit volume (W/mm³). To maximize power density, numerous designers select higher switching frequencies for modulation.

Power supply systems use high-power semiconductor switches such as silicon-based MOSFETs and new GaN (gallium nitride) and SiC-based MOSFETs, and high-current isolated drivers are required to control these switches. High-speed switching improves system efficiency but generates more noise, which can lead to signal loss or permanent damage due to latch-up. The Si827x gate driver protects the power system by providing excellent immunity to such noise caused by high-speed switching.

Gate driver resistance is more than twice as high compared to competitors.
Also compatible with Gecko MCU

The Si827x gate driver provides industry-leading noise immunity (200 kV/µs) and latch-up immunity (400 kV/µs), which are more than twice as high as the immunity ratings of other gate drivers commercially available today. With industry-leading high-performance noise immunity, the Si827x family eliminates risks associated with faster switching speeds and prevents latch-up and modulation losses, which can be major safety considerations. The Si827x family's very high latch-up specifications make the gate driver extremely robust and prevent permanent latch-up damage.

The Si827x family offers a choice of single or dual isolated drivers with two independent inputs or a single input for power converter applications. These drivers support a wide range of input VDD from 2.5 to 5.5 V and drive power voltages up to 30 V. The low 2.5 V VDDI voltage enables developers to design systems with low-voltage power supplies, consuming less power, improving system efficiency, and ensuring compatibility with low-power microcontrollers such as Silicon Labs' EFM32 Gecko MCU.

The Si827x gate driver features an EN (active high enable) pin instead of the typically used DIS (active low) pin, and provides UVLO (under-voltage lockout) fault protection, a de-glitch function to filter out noisy inputs, and highly precise dead time (DT pin) control. When using these DT functions, developers can precisely control the “dead time” between two switching drivers to maximize the efficiency and safety of the power system.

Ross Sabolcik, Vice President of Power Products at Silicon Labs, said, “Silicon Labs’ new Si827x gate driver family solves real-world customer problems, enabling safe high-speed switching and low-power 2.5V operation with superior timing specifications. With the industry-leading noise immunity provided by the Si827x gate driver, developers can safely design power supply systems using fast-switching MOSFETs or faster GaN and SiC switches, thereby dramatically improving overall system efficiency and increasing reliability.”