Digitalized Power Electronics for Incorporating IoT and AI
Makoto Takamiya
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanAbstract
The concept and the example of Power Electronics 2.0
are shown in this paper. Power Electronics 2.0, which is acombination of IoT, AI, and power electronics, is an essential technology for the power electronics industry tocontinue to grow in the future. Power Electronics 2.0 will
directly connect manufacturers and users, and will enable
power electronics to continue to evolve and respond toeach user's individual needs by utilizing the large amountof data generated by power electronics equipment.
1. Introduction
In order for the power electronics industry to continue togrow in the future, it needs to change to a different competitive axis from the traditional one of “good products at lowprices”. One of these axes of competition is the concept of“Power Electronics 2.0” [1]. Power Electronics 2.0, which integrates IoT and AI, will directly connect manufacturers andusers, and will enable power electronics to continue to evolveand respond to each user's individual needs by utilizing thelarge amount of data generated by power electronics equipment. If the business model of power electronics is changed
from a flow-based model to a stock-based model (subscription-based model), the power electronics industry will be able
to continue to grow in the future.
2. Concept of Power Electronics 2.0
Fig. 1 shows the concept of “Power Electronics 2.0” [1],where the power electronics is digitalized for IoT and AI implementation. Table I shows a comparison between conventional power electronics and Power Electronics 2.0. PowerElectronics 2.0, which is a combination of IoT, AI, and powerelectronics, is an essential technology for the introduction ofthe subscription-based business model. This is because theessence of the revolution enabled by IoT is to directly connect
the manufacturers and users, and to learn how the users actually use the products. With the addition of AI, the power electronics that are individualized for each user will be able tomaximize user value. Beyond that, there will be the powerelectronics that continues to evolve and respond to the individual needs of each user, whose functions and performance
will increase with increasing use. The three key technologies
to enable Power Electronics 2.0 are (1) sensors and networkconnections for IoT, (2) digitalized programmable hardware
whose characteristics can be changed by software, and (3) AI
based on big data.
3. Programmable Digital Gate Driver IC for GaN FETs
As a research case study of programmable hardware for

Manufacturers
Service providers

Networkconnection

CloudBig dataAI

IoT

User 1
Power electronics
equipment
Sensors
Programmablehardware

Provide optimal
services foreach user

User 2

Fig. 1. Concept of “Power Electronics 2.0” [1].
Table I Comparison between conventional power electronics andproposed Power Electronics 2.0
Conventional
Power Electronics 2.0power electronics
Business
Selling off
Subscription-basedmodelproducts
Good products at Provide personalized
Value
low prices
services to each user
High performance,Keywords
IoT, AI, Digitalhigh reliability
User's usage
Collect and analyze
Unknown
statususer data by IoT and AI
Programmable withHardware
Fixedsoftware

Power Electronics 2.0, a digital gate driver (DGD) that digitalizes the gate driver circuit is described. DGD [2], where thegate driving current (IG) is dynamically controlled using asoftware during the turn-on/off transients, is a promisingtechnology to solve the conventional trade-off between theswitching loss (ELOSS) and the current (IOVERSHOOT) or voltage
overshoot of power devices. The impact of the digital gate
driver is as follows. (1) High flexibility because the characteristics can be changed by software. (2) Anyone can use
DGD because the parameters of the digital gate driver circuit
can be optimized automatically by software. (3) Various
needs of different users can be met by simply rewriting theobjective function for the optimization in software.
GaN FETs provide low on-resistance and fast switching,which makes them suitable for realizing high efficiency andsmall volume power converters. GaN FETs, however, arevery difficult to use because of its ultrafast switching operation, which causes large and high frequency voltage and/or
current ringing, causing device reliability and EMI problems.
To solve the problem, a 5 V, 300 MSa/s, 6-bit DGD IC, where
the gate current is varied in 64 levels for each of 16 3.3-nstime intervals, is developed for GaN FETs [3]. Figs. 2 and 3

VDD

VDD

Scan-in
Scan_CLKnPMOS [5:0]
nNMOS [5:0]

GaN FET

6D6GND

1WP
IO

32WP

IO

32IO

VDD

IN
EnableCLK
GNDInternalclockgenerator

D

n=16Q

32IO

5IG

GND

Q

32WN

1WN

Int_CLK

GND

GND

IG = nIO= 0 A to 5 A
n = 0 to 63
IO = 80 mA

Fig. 2. Circuit schematic of 5 V, 300 MSa/s, 6-bit DGD IC for GaN
FETs.

ELOSS [μJ]

Scan_Data

ELOSS, MAX

Digital gate driver (DGD) IC
VDD (5 V)

n=24

Conv. single-stepgate drive

3−69%

2−60%

Not to scale

IN(e.g. 100 kHz)

On

Off

16 pulses

16 pulses1Proposedn = 24n = 630

CLK(300 MHz)0

Int_CLK10Fig. 5. Measured ELOSS vs. IOVERSHOOT of conventional single-stepgate driving and proposed gate drive.

63nPMOS [5:0]

5IOVERSHOOT [A] IOVERSHOOT, MAX

063

nNMOS [5:0]0Fig. 3. Timing chart of 300 MSa/s, 6-bit DGD IC.

1.8 mmInternal clock generator

Scan-in

Predrivers

nMOS drivers

Scan-inpMOS drivers

4. Conclusions
Power Electronics 2.0, which is a combination of IoT, AI,and power electronics, is an essential technology for thepower electronics industry to continue to grow in the future.
In order to realize Power Electronics 2.0, however, a lot oftechnical issues in a wide range of fields, including AI, IoT,circuits, devices, sensors, ICs, and software, remain to be addressed and the researches that links these areas needs to bepromoted in the future.
Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by JST ERATO Grant Number JPMJER1501, Japan.

References
2.4 mmFig. 4. Die photo of DGD IC fabricated with 180-nm BCD process.

show a circuit schematic and a timing chart of the developed
DGD IC for GaN FETs, respectively. Fig. 4 shows a die photoof the developed DGD IC fabricated with 180-nm BCD process. The parameters for DGD are automatically optimized
using a simulated annealing algorithm [2] through repeatedswitching measurements. Fig. 5 shows the measured ELOSS vs.
IOVERSHOOT of the conventional single-step gate driving andthe proposed gate drive for comparison. In the turn-on of GaN
FET (EPC2045, 100 V, 16 A rating) at 48 V and 8 A, compared with the conventional single-step gate driving, the proposed gate drive using DGD reduces ELOSS from 3.9 µJ to 1.2µJ by 69 % at the same IOVERSHOOT of 3.4 A and reduces IOVERSHOOT from 8.5 A to 3.4 A by 60 % at the same ELOSS of
1.2 µJ, which clearly shows the advantage of DGD for GaNFETs.

[1] M. Takamiya, K. Miyazaki, H. Obara, T. Sai, K. Wada, and T.
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