Page 37 - PEN eBook October 2025

AEROSPACE AEROSPACE

“Power supply topologies are necessarily of the ▶ Maintains pre-rad specification for up to
isolated type and can substantially benefit from a 4 × 1,015 neutrons/cm 2
device able to stand more than twice the DC source,”
Salato said. The EPC7030MSH package is built with AlN ceramic
and hermetically sealed in a nitrogen atmosphere. The
INTEGRATING THE DEVICE INTO package lid is also made with AlN, as shown in
FRONT-END DC/DC CONVERTERS Figure 5.

A popular approach to generate the very high voltages
required for electric thrusters consists of implementing ADVANCED TARGET APPLICATIONS
transformer-based, isolated power supply topologies. Figure 4: EPC7030MSH pinout Target applications are power converters and motor
drives with 100- to 200-V input supply levels. The
DC
“These systems offer efficient voltage step-up EPC7030MSH fits the primary stage, as shown in the
and separation through isolation and can also be ENSURING OUTSTANDING OPERATION push-pull example for electric propulsion.
lightweight and efficient if [they are] operated at a high High power density is the product of EPC Space’s
frequency and make full use of the magnetics,” Salato Figure 2: EPC7030MSH SEE SOA rad-hard GaN technology. As a wide-bandgap device, it “For higher-voltage-distribution buses, a common
said. offers the best performance in any switching converter topology includes the single-switch forward converter,
topology compared with silicon devices. which also requires higher voltage-blocking capability
An example of such a topology is the push-pull ADDING HUGE CAPABILITIES TO on the primary transistor,” Salato said.
converter, shown in Figure 1. SATELLITE DESIGNS “Thermal management is provided by means of
Higher power means inevitably higher voltages, as an aluminum nitride [AlN] ceramic package, with EPC SPACE’S CONTINUED
they are much easier to handle than higher currents. integrated metal interconnect,” Salato said. This means COMMITMENT
Classic satellite power centered around 28 V. However, that while the device pads double as the main thermal “As mentioned before, rad-hard GaN is superior in
as loads increase and solar arrays evolve, voltages are interface, the entire package contributes to efficient any measurable performance parameter to silicon
moving up. thermal management, thanks to the specific ceramic MOSFETs,” Salato said.
high thermal conductivity.
“Plants can now source 100 V to 150 V, which will need An underappreciated aspect is that GaN is practically
to be distributed and regulated to higher intermediate immune to ionizing radiation. On the contrary, a silicon
voltage levels—for example, 48 V instead of 28 V,” EPC7030MSH KEY FEATURES MOSFET’s ability to withstand ionizing radiation is in
Salato said. The list of outstanding characteristics includes: tradeoff with the SEE SOA.

Figure 1: Step-up push-pull converter Rad-hard GaN offers this level of scalability by ▶ Ultra-low Q for high efficiency “Because this tradeoff is absent for GaN, it
G
maintaining the highest figures of merit at each voltage becomes easier achieving rad-hard performance—no
“Keeping in mind that new satellite power plants class. The EPC7030MSH features 15-mΩ R DS(on) and ▶ Logic level compromise needs to be made,” Salato said. “This is
provide power in the range of ~100 to 120 V, the power 25-nC total gate charge (Q ) and is rated for 50-A also reflected in much higher MTTF [mean time to
G
transistors shown in the schematic need to offer continuous current. ▶ Lightweight failure] figures.”
>200-V voltage withstanding as well as sufficient
current-handling capabilities,” Salato said. “In this GROWING DEMAND FOR COMPACT ▶ Compact hermetic package It’s becoming harder to find power electronic
example, two EPC7030MSH devices can easily support POWER CONVERSION COMPONENTS designers in space applications choosing to adopt
a 5-kW design.” The EPC7030MSH package was designed by optimizing ▶ Source sense pin silicon MOSFETs in new designs.
the tradeoff between surface insulation (creepage),
ADVANCEMENTS TO DELIVER conduction cooling interfaces, and overall size. ▶ TID-immune “Rad-hard-by-design GaN has reached its maturity
EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE and offers a leap forward in terms of performance that

The EPC7030MSH capitalizes on EPC Space’s “It provides 1.5-mm minimum clearance and creepage, ▶ SEE immunity for linear energy transfer of makes a difference in future space systems,” Salato
experience in rad-hard-by-design GaN devices. Like all while the remaining package surface area is used as an 84.6 MeV/mg/cm with a drain-source voltage of said.
2
EPC Space GaN products, parts are practically immune electrical and thermal interface,” Salato said. “Figure 3 up to 250 V
to the total ionizing dose (TID). shows the device pads as configured on the bottom of
the ceramic package.”
“Moreover, the 300-V platform offers a robust, square
safe operating area [SOA] with respect to single-event
effects [SEEs], as shown in Figure 2,” Salato said.

He added, “The GaN device offers superior
performance in each single category. The PCB footprint
goes down by a factor of 5, power losses go down by
a factor of 4. And the best part: Thermal management Figure 3: EPC7030MSH pad configuration with
and power integrity also benefit substantially.” creepage distance Figure 5: EPC Space M package Figure 6: Single-switch forward converter

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