Electrical isolation is critical to ensure safety and minimize electromagnetic interference (EMI), yet existing methods struggle to simultaneously transmit power and signals through a unified channel. Here we demonstrate a mechanically-isolated gate driver based on microwave-frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) device on lithium niobate that achieves galvanic isolation of 2.75 kV with ultralow isolation capacitance (0.032 pF) over 1.25 mm mechanical propagation length, delivering 13.4 V open-circuit voltage and 44.4 mA short-circuit current. We demonstrate isolated gate driving for a gallium nitride (GaN) high-electron-mobility transistor, achieving a turn-on time of 108.8 ns comparable to commercial drivers and validate its operation in a buck converter. In addition, our SAW device operates over an ultrawide temperature range from 0.5 K (-272.6 {\deg}C) to 544 K (271 {\deg}C). The microwave-frequency SAW devices offer inherent EMI immunity and potential for heterogeneous integration on multiple semiconductor platforms, enabling compact, high-performance isolated power and signal transmission in advanced power electronics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.13412,
title = {Microwave-acoustic-based isolated gate driver for power electronics},
author = {Liyang Jin and Zichen Xi and Joseph G. Thomas and Jun Ji and Yuanzhi Zhang and Nuo Chen and Yizheng Zhu and Linbo Shao and Liyan Zhu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.13412},
year = {2026}
}