EPC gives development board for high current, high step-down buck converter apps

Efficient Power Conversion Corp. (EPC) has introduced the EPC9016 half-bridge development board for high current, high step-down voltage, buck Intermediate Bus Converter (IBC) applications using eGaN FETs.

In this application two low-side (synchronous rectifier) field effect transistors (FETs) are connected in parallel since they will be conducting for a much longer period compared to the single high side (control) FET.

eGaN FETs have superior current sharing capability compared to silicon MOSFETs, making them ideal for parallel operation. This development board from its part expands upon EPC’s work on optimal layout based on ultra-low inductance packages. The optimum layout techniques used increase efficiency while reducing voltage overshoot and EMI.

The EPC9016 development board is a 40 V maximum device voltage, 25 A maximum output current, half-bridge and featuring the EPC2015 eGaN FET with an onboard LM5113 gate driver. The half-bridge configuration contains a single topside device and two parallel bottom devices and is recommended for high step-down ratio buck converter applications such as point-of-load converters and buck converters for non-isolated telecom infrastructure.