1 System Description

This reference design is developed around TI's half-bridge gallium nitride (GaN) power stage with integrated gate drivers and the TMS320F2800137 C2000 MCU. The design is targeted for single-panel power optimizer designs, capable of operating with 15V to 80V solar panel modules with up to 18A output current.

The design uses the perturb-and-observe algorithm for MPPT and has an operating efficiency of greater than 99%. The high efficiency is attributed to the half-bridge GaN FETs power stage with low R_DS(on), low P_switch and zero reverse recovery charge in the design. Usage of small sized components is made possible by the high switching frequency (up to 300kHz) of the buck converter.

This design also includes PLC communication based on AFE031 and wireless communication based on CC1352P7 for sending and receiving data such as voltage, current, power, and so forth.