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GaN Half-Bridge Drivers Tackle Motion Control in Consumer, Industrial Apps

June 13, 2025

A pair of half-bridge drivers from STMicroelectronics help designers deliver improved efficiency, power density, and ruggedness.

Lee Goldberg

Related To:

Electronic Design

STMicroelectronics’ STDRIVEG610 and STDRIVEG611 integrated half-bridge drivers give designers two approaches to managing gallium-nitride (GaN) devices in power-conversion and motion applications. The end result is greater efficiency, power density and ruggedness for consumer and industrial applications.

Best suited for power adapters, chargers, and power-factor-correction (PFC) circuits, the STDRIVEG610 addresses systems requiring an extremely fast 300-ns startup time. That’s an important parameter for converter topologies like LLC or ACF, ensuring accurate controlled turn-off intervals in burst mode.

Tailored for hard switching in motion-control applications, the STDRIVEG611 can save space and boost efficiency in drives for home appliances, pumps and compressors, industrial servo drives, and factory automation. It also offers protection features like high-side UVLO and smart shutdown for overcurrent conditions.

Both devices are suitable for hard- and soft-switching topologies with built-in interlocking to prevent cross conduction. To simplify the design, the devices integrate a high-side bootstrap diode as well as 6-V high- and low-side linear regulators with high current capability and short propagation delay matched to within 10 ns.

Each driver has a separate sink and source path, with 2.4-A/1.2-Ω sink and 1.0-A/3.7-Ω source parameters, for optimal driving. They also have a standby pin for power saving during inactive periods or burst mode as well as a separated power ground for Kelvin source driving or connecting a current shunt

Both half-bridge products are available now, priced at $1.56 for orders of 1,000 pieces. The EVLSTDRIVEG610Q and EVLSTDRIVEG611 evaluation boards are also available to help accelerate development.

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About the Author

Lee Goldberg | Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.