STMicroelectronics has launched two 100W high-voltage VIPerGaN converters, extending wide bandgap energy-saving technology to home appliances, building and home automation, smart lighting, as well as consumer products such as TVS and chargers.
The two newly launched power converters are the VIPerGaN100W with a leakage limit current of 3.5A and the VIPerGaN100WB with 4.2A. The latter can briefly withstand a peak power of 125W. This flexible margin prevents designers from overly redundantly designing power circuits when developing devices with inductive loads such as solenoid valves and motors, such as coffee machines, small household appliances, and air conditioners. Both converters are compatible with the globally universal AC input voltage of 85V to 265V and stably output 100W when the input voltage is above 185V.
Both converters are equipped with 700V gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors, ensuring the robustness and high reliability of the converters. The 0.27mΩ on-resistance RDS(on) of the power transistor helps the converter achieve excellent thermal performance. Within the 5mm × 6mm QFN package, a flyback converter and a GaN gate driver are also integrated, eliminating the need for designers to fine-tune the gate resistance and inductance for the cumbersome switching performance optimization debugging work.
On the other hand, the high switching frequency characteristic of GaN power transistors enables circuit designers to achieve excellent energy efficiency and power density by using small-sized passive components. To demonstrate this advantage, STMicroelectronics has launched the 100W USB Type-C PD 3.0 charger reference design EVLVIPGAN100WP based on the VIPerGaN100W design. This solution supports five power output configurations ranging from 5V/3.0A to 20V/5.0A. It adopts a secondary side regulation and optocoupler feedback architecture, with a peak efficiency exceeding 92% and a power density of 24W/in³.
Both VIPerGaN100W and VIPerGaN100WB are equipped with quasi-resonant zero-voltage switching flyback converters. They adopt flexible power management mechanisms such as light-load frequency return and medium-load valley jump period, maintaining high energy efficiency across the full load range by limiting the switching frequency. In the trough jump period mode, stmicroelectronics' self-developed trough locking technology can stably skip the number of troughs, avoid audio frequency band fluctuations, and ensure silent operation under full-load conditions. The no-load burst mode can reduce the standby power consumption to below 30mW.
In addition, the line voltage feedforward can precisely control the electrical energy transmitted in each switching cycle, maintaining a stable output power when the input voltage fluctuates. Meanwhile, the dynamic blanking time limits the variation of the switching frequency to minimize switching losses to the greatest extent. Both converters are integrated with comprehensive electrical safety protection functions, covering input and output overvoltage protection, overheat shutdown, undervoltage power-on protection, and undervoltage power-off protection.
