Bipolar transistors

Diodes

ESD protection, TVS, filtering and signal conditioning

MOSFETs

SiC power devices

GaN FETs

IGBTs

Analog & Logic ICs

Automotive qualified products (AEC-Q100/Q101)

Medium-voltage (48 V <> 400 V) 3-phase inverter

Medium-voltage 3-phase inverters operating between 48 V and 400 V form the power conversion backbone of modern PMSM and BLDC drives, spanning applications from EV traction systems and industrial servo drives to HVAC compressors and e-mobility platforms. At these voltage levels, the inverter must manage significantly higher energy densities than low-voltage designs while delivering the precise, high-frequency switching required for field-oriented control (FOC) and regenerative braking. This voltage range introduces a fundamentally different set of semiconductor challenges – from gate drive isolation and dV/dt-induced Miller turn-on, to the critical trade-offs between silicon MOSFETs, SiC MOSFETs, GaN FETs and IGBTs.


  • Block diagram
  • Design considerations
  • Design resources
  • Product listing
  • Support

Block diagram

AC / DC Power management Gatedriver Commsinterrface Signalprocessing Sensorinterface aaa-045218 Inverter stage and break Single or3-phase CPU CAN Wired / Wireless grid M 3 Highlighted components are Nexperia focus products.

Select a component

To view more information about the Nexperia components used in this application, please select a component above or click on a component (highlighted in blue) in the block diagram.

Design considerations

  • Switching losses versus conduction losses dominate device choice, so need to select MOSFETs based on RDS(on) and QG/Qoss trade-off.
  • High-side gate driving and layout become critical for reliability. Bootstrap / driver must handle dV/dt, dead-time and Miller turn-on immunity. Poor layout or weak drivers lead to shoot-through and EMI.
  • Regenerative operation drives DC bus and protection design so braking and bidirectional power flow require bus overvoltage handling (TVS, braking or control) and sufficient capacitor sizing.
  • Fast edges require controlled gate resistance, snubbing and tight layout to avoid overshoot, false turn-on and compliance issues.