GaN Motor-Control Ref Design: 600-W-Plus with No Heatsink
The EVSTDRVG611MC gallium-nitride (GaN) motor-control reference design from STMicroelectronics handles more than 600 W without a heatsink when connected to a DC supply, ensuring a compact outline and low build cost. Adding a heatsink increases the maximum capability, ensuring a flexible power range for appliances like washing machines, as well as industrial servo drives and other brushless DC (BLDC) motor applications.
Introduced at APEC 2026, the kit’s 2-layer 108- × 110-mm PCB is based on a reference design that combines ST’s STDRIVEG611 GaN driver ICs, discrete 650-V 75-mΩ GaN HEMT power transistors, and a mixed-signal STM32G431 microcontroller. Its STDRIVEG611 gate drivers are compact 5- × 4-mm QFN devices, which are tailored for hard switching to facilitate GaN adoption in motor controls.
Its STM32G431 microcontroller integrates three analog amplifiers for three-shunt sensing an Arm Cortex-M4 core, which can support control algorithms for field-oriented control (FOC) in sensorless or sensored modes at high speeds. There are a variety of feedback options, including Hall sensors and incremental or absolute encoders.
The EVSTDRVG611MC is available now through distributors or from the eSTore, with pricing from $125.06. The bill of materials and schematics, as well as Gerber files for the economical two-layer board, are ready to download from st.com.
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.