NCP51820 GaN Driver, PCB Design and Layout

Application Note Overview

The NCP51820 is a 650V, high speed, half−bridge driver capable of driving GaN power switches at dV/dt rates up to 200 V/ns. The full performance benefit of switching high voltage at high frequency with fast dV/dt edge rates can only be achieved with a properly designed printed circuit board (PCB) capable of supporting such aggressive power switching transitions.

The NCP51820 is a full−featured, dedicated driver intended to maximize high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) GaNFET switching performance. For similar rated breakdown voltage, GaNFETs are fabricated using a smaller die size compared to silicon.

In this application note from ON Semiconductor, learn the most important PCB design considerations that must be taken into account for successfully designing a GaN based, half−bridge, gate drive circuit utilizing the NCP51820.