Description

The LM5113 device is designed to drive the high-side and low-side enhancement mode Gallium Nitride (GaN) FETs in a half-bridge configuration. The floating high-side gate is capable of driving enhancement mode GaN FETs up to 100 V. Used with the DSBGA package the LM5113 device is especially suited for high-frequency operation. Care must be taken at high-frequency operation to ensure that adequate thermal design tolerance is present for the worst-case driver power dissipation. Furthermore, a good understanding of the driver losses for different load mechanisms is very helpful in estimating the on die power loss in the GaN driver. This application report demonstrates the operation of LM5113 device at high-frequency for hard-switching and soft-switching applications. It also provides an estimate of the losses in the driver based on calculations and an analytical approach.