Motor drive IPMs include three drivers and three FETs amongst other components that are integrated into one package, providing features such as fault detection, over temperature prevention, and current sensing. While these devices offer a lot, they do have their disadvantages. Since many components are stuffed into one package, thermal performance can degrade at higher power levels. A standalone gate driver IC with external FETs can spread heat more effectively, benfiting high-power HVAC applications. Higher maximum voltage and current specifications can also be achieved by using the same standalone gate driver IC with Lower RDSon external FETs, while IPMs are typically bottlenecked to their specified rating.

As mentioned, one benefit of designing discretely is that the FETs and their respective standalone gate driver ICs may be placed optimally for board layout and thermal needs. With proper layout, pairing a standalone gate driver IC as close as possible to the external FET will minimize trace lengths, leading to a reduction in switching losses and EMI. This provides flexibility to the engineer, allowing optimization of overall board performance. Additionally, standalone gate driver ICs are heavily multisource, meaning most devices will have a competitor that matches its pinout and key specs. This provides the engineer the ability to drop in other solutions as needed if their current vendor runs into supply concerns. In contrast, IPMs tend to be unique and do not have direct replacements available in the market.