EPC has come up with a 3-phase BLDC motor drive inverter reference design which operates from an input supply voltage range of 14 V to 60 V and delivers up to 60A output current.

EPC9194 power converter eval board
This voltage range and power level makes the EPC9194 suitable for a variety of 3-Phase BLDC motor drives including eBikes, eScooters, drones, robots, DC servo motors.

The board features six 100V eGaN FETs in a 3 mm x 5 mm QFN package. 

The board’s size is  130 mm x 100 mm (including the connector).

The EPC2302 eGaN FET offers an  RDS(on), of just 1.8 mOhm, combined with very small QG, QGD, and QOSS parameters for reduced conduction and switching losses.

 

The package is a thermally enhanced QFN with exposed top for enhanced heat dissipation to the heatsink, and wettable flanks for easy inspections.

The estimated total power loss with six EPC2302’s at 20 ARMS and with 100 kHz PWM frequency is half that of a Si MOSFET solution with the same RDS(on) operating at 16 kHz PWM frequency.

The 100 kHz PWM frequency enables a quasi-pure sinusoidal current, reducing vibration and distortion in the motor and resulting in about 7% higher motor system efficiency.

Additionally, 100 kHz PWM frequency allows for the reduction of the input filter and the elimination or reduction of electrolytic capacitors.

The EPC9194 incorporates all the critical circuit functions required to support a complete motor drive inverter, including gate drivers, regulated auxiliary power rails for housekeeping supplies, voltage, and temperature sense, accurate current sense, and protection functions.

With a 48 V input and 100kHz PWM frequency, the board can deliver 20 ARMS steady state without heatsink with a temperature rise of 60 °C, and more than 30 ARMS with a heatsink.

The EPC9194 is compatible with various controllers from different manufacturers allowing for quick development and reduced design cycle times. EPC offers control interface boards (EPC9147X) to operate this inverter reference design with the many common BLDC motors. The EPC9194KIT includes the EPC9194 evaluation board and a controller board that allows to easy interface the board with a microcontroller design kit: 

EPC9147A controller board to interface to popular Microchip microcontrollers
EPC9147C controller board to interface to popular ST microcontrollers
EPC9147B controller board to interface to popular TI microcontrollers
EPC9147E controller board to interface to generic microcontrollers
“Designers can use EPC GaN FETs to make lighter-weight and more efficient battery-operated motor drives for a wide variety of e-mobility and robotic applications”, said Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. “GaN enables motor systems that are smaller, lighter, quieter, more powerful, and more precise while improving EMI, reducing the need for EMI filtering and capacitors, and eliminating electrolytic capacitors and input filter inductors.”