Suitable for a wide range of motor system applications – from e-mobility, electric scooters, small electric vehicles, agricultural machinery, forklifts and high power drones, the EPC9186 GaN-based inverter reference design enhances motor system performance, range, precision, and torque for high power applications, says the company.

The three-phase BLDC motor drive inverter supports an input DC voltage range from 14 to 80V. There are four EPC2302 FETs in parallel per switch position and the EC2302 can deliver up to 200A pk maximum output current. The reference design contains critical function circuits to support a complete motor drive inverter, including gate drivers, regulated auxiliary power rails for housekeeping supplies, voltage, as well as temperature sense, accurate current sense and protection functions.  The board can also be configured for multi-phase DC/DC conversion and supports both phase and leg shunt current sensing. 

According to the company, the reference design illustrates the benefits of a GaN-based motor drive, which includs lower distortion for lower acoustic noise, lower current ripple for reduced magnetic loss, lower torque ripple for improved precision and lower filtering for lower cost. 

Full demonstration kits are available. These include interface boards that connect the inverter board to the controller board development tool for fast prototyping that reduce design cycle times.

“GaN-based inverters increase motor efficiency and can increase power capability without increasing size”, comments Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. “This enables motor systems that are smaller, lighter, less noisy, have more torque, more range, and greater precision for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications.”