Thermal Guidelines
Gate drivers used to switch MOSFETs and IGBTs at
high frequencies can dissipate significant amounts of
power. It is important to determine the driver power
dissipation and the resulting junction temperature in the
application to ensure that the part is operating within
acceptable temperature limits.
In the forward converter with synchronous rectifier
shown in the typical application diagrams, the
FDMS8660S is a reasonable MOSFET selection. The
gate charge for each SR MOSFET would be 60nC with
VGS = VDD = 7V. At a switching frequency of 500kHz, the
total power dissipation is:
The total power dissipation in a gate driver is the sum of
PGATE = 60nC • 7V • 500kHz • 2 = 0.42W
PDYNAMIC = 3mA • 7V • 2 = 0.042W
PTOTAL = 0.46W
(5)
(6)
(7)
two components, PGATE and PDYNAMIC
:
PTOTAL = PGATE + PDYNAMIC
(1)
Gate Driving Loss: The most significant power loss
results from supplying gate current (charge per unit
time) to switch the load MOSFET on and off at the
switching frequency. The power dissipation that
results from driving a MOSFET at a specified gate-
source voltage, VGS, with gate charge, QG, at
switching frequency, FSW, is determined by:
The SOIC-8 has
characterization parameter of
a
junction-to-board thermal
ψJB
= 43°C/W. In a
system application, the localized temperature around
the device is a function of the layout and construction of
the PCB along with airflow across the surfaces. To
ensure reliable operation, the maximum junction
temperature of the device must be prevented from
exceeding the maximum rating of 150°C; with 80%
derating, TJ would be limited to 120°C. Rearranging
Equation 4 determines the board temperature required
to maintain the junction temperature below 120°C:
PGATE = QG • VGS • FSW • n
(2)
n is the number of driver channels in use (1 or 2).
Dynamic Pre-drive / Shoot-through Current: A
power loss resulting from internal current
consumption under dynamic operating conditions,
including pin pull-up / pull-down resistors, can be
obtained using the “IDD (No-Load) vs. Frequency”
graphs in Typical Performance Characteristics to
determine the current IDYNAMIC drawn from VDD
under actual operating conditions:
ψ
TB = TJ - PTOTAL
•
(8)
(9)
JB
TB = 120°C – 0.46W • 43°C/W = 100°C
For comparison, replace the SOIC-8 used in the
previous example with the 3x3mm MLP package with
ψJB
= 3.5°C/W. The 3x3mm MLP package could
operate at PCB temperature of 118°C, while
a
PDYNAMIC = IDYNAMIC • VDD • n
(3)
maintaining the junction temperature below 120°C. This
illustrates that the physically smaller MLP package with
thermal pad offers a more conductive path to remove
the heat from the driver. Consider tradeoffs between
reducing overall circuit size with junction temperature
reduction for increased reliability.
Once the power dissipated in the driver is determined,
the driver junction rise with respect to circuit board can
be evaluated using the following thermal equation,
ψJB
assuming
was determined for a similar thermal
design (heat sinking and air flow):
ψ
TJ = PTOTAL
where:
•
JB + TB
(4)
TJ
= driver junction temperature
ψJB
= (psi) thermal characterization parameter relating
temperature rise to total power dissipation
TB = board temperature in location defined in
Note 1 under Thermal Resistance table.
© 2007 Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation
www.fairchildsemi.com
FAN3226 / FAN3227 / FAN3228 / FAN3229 • Rev. 1.0.2
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