To operate GaN transistors at very high switching frequencies and to reduce associated switching losses, a powerful gate driver is employed between the PWM output of controller and the gates of the GaN transistor. Also, gate drivers are indispensable when the outputs of the PWM controller do not meet the voltage or current levels needed to directly drive the gates of the switching devices. With the advent of digital power, this situation is often encountered because the PWM signal from the digital controller is often a 3.3-V logic signal, which cannot effectively turn on a power switch. A level-shift circuit is needed to boost the 3.3 V signal to the gate-drive voltage (such as 12 V) in order to fully turn on the power device and minimize conduction losses.

Traditional buffer drive circuits based on NPN/PNP bipolar transistors in totem-pole arrangement prove inadequate with digital power because they lack level-shifting capability. Gate drivers effectively combine both the level-shifting and buffer-drive functions. Gate drivers also address other needs such as minimizing the effect of high-frequency switching noise (by placing the high-current driver IC physically close to the power switch), driving gate-drive transformers and controlling floating power-device gates, reducing power dissipation and thermal stress in controllers by moving gate charge power losses from the controller into the driver.

The LMG1205 is a MHz high- and low-side gate driver for enhancement mode GaN FETs in a synchronous buck, boost, or half-bridge configuration. The high-side bias voltage is generated using a bootstrap technique and is internally clamped at 5 V, which prevents the gate voltage from exceeding the maximum gate-source voltage rating of enhancement mode GaN FETs. The LMG1205 has split-gate outputs with strong sink capability, providing flexibility to adjust the turnon and turnoff strength independently.