GaN Power ICs and Off-the-Shelf Controllers Enable 150 W, 500 kHz AC-DC with 4x Power Density

A 150W AC-to-DC high-density and low-profile adapter has been designed, built and tested. The topology selected includes a universal AC input PFC front end, an LLC step down converter, and a synchronous rectification stage for the 19VDC/8A output. The design includes NV6115 GaN power ICs and off-theshelf controllers running at 500kHz. When compared to existing converter designs running at 100kHz, this new design has resulted in a 43.8% reduction in the PFC inductor size, and a 78.3% reduction in the LLC transformer size. The waveforms demonstrate clean and fast zero-voltage switching in all stages and the performance results show high efficiency and acceptable component temperatures.