Advanced gate drivers for the combo box: the trend for an integrated powertrain system in EV
2020 Automotive TI Tech Day session
Automotive manufacturers are building and increasing electrification in vehicle powertrains in the form of hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles (HEVs/EVs). Sales are projected to reach 20-25% of the vehicular volumes by 2030 for HEVs/EVs. This has led to several disruptive technologies in the automotive industry. These disruptive trends aim towards energy efficient, robust and compact systems translating into improved performance and longer driving range. While significant improvements and proven successes have been made towards addressing high performance such as range anxiety (consumer concern on longer driving range) particularly in EVs compared to combustion vehicles (ICE), one of the biggest concerns in this space is the affordability of HEVs/EVs for mass market adoption and the lack of profitability for the carmaker (OEM). It is true that battery costs are expected to come down significantly over the years due to economy of scale. However, detailed business models created recently indicate that there are other options to leverage the cost reduction [3] that could reduce the gap in the pricing today making electric vehicles affordable and attractive for consumers and accelerate the time for OEMs to be profitable in HEV/EV sales. One of them is design to cost (DTC) focusing on powertrain integration with the power electronics components positioned closer together, reducing the number of components and integrating them into fewer boxes.
The purpose of this presentation is to examine the direction on DTC on power electronics with particular emphasis on the evolution and optimization of the gate driver IC, a key component in the EV powertrain system to drive power devices.