By: Andy Extance, Power Dev’
April, 2013

Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC), Fairchild Semiconductor, GeneSiC Semiconductor, ROHM Semiconductor, and Transphorm tell Andy Extance and Power Dev’ how they’re turning module and system makers toward wide bandgap devices.

http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=157700&p=6

EPC9005 demonstrates the ease of designing with eGaN FETs with ready-made, easy to connect development boards and well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—April 2013— Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of the EPC9005 development board, featuring EPC’s enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistors (FETs). This board demonstrates how IC gate drivers, optimized for eGaN FETs, make the task of transitioning from silicon to eGaN technology simple and cost effective.

The EPC9005 development board is a half bridge configuration containing two 40 V EPC2014 eGaN FETs with a 7 A maximum output current using a gate driver... Read More »

This article is an overview of the elements needed to assemble a wireless power transfer system. The EPC9104 demonstration system from EPC showcases the high frequency, voltage, and power required for efficient wireless power transfer.

EDN Europe
March 2013
http://mag.electronics-eetimes.com/EDNE_MARCH_2013/#/26/

Optimizing PCB layout for an eGaN FET based point of load (POL) buck converter will reduce parasitics, thus leading to improved efficiency, faster switching speeds, and reduced device voltage overshoot compared to conventional MOSFET based designs.

By David Reusch, Ph.D., Director, Applications, Efficient Power Conversion

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EPC9010 development board features dedicated eGaN driver to facilitate rapid design of high frequency switching power conversion systems using the 100 V EPC2016 eGaN FET

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— February, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces the EPC9010 development board to make it easier for engineers to start designing with a 100 V enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET) in applications such as high-speed DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, hard-switched and high frequency circuits.

The EPC9010 development board is a 100 V maximum device voltage, 7 A maximum output current, half bridge with onboard gate drives, featuring the EPC2016 enhancement mode (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET). The purpose of this development board is to simplify... Read More »

Designers of point of load (POL) converters used in 24 VDC systems traditionally have had to decide between the high cost of an isolated converter and the low frequency and efficiency of a buck converter. When compared with the 12 V POL converter common in computing systems, the higher voltage of the 24 V POL converter increases FET voltage to at least 40 volts to accommodate switch-node ringing and increases commutation and COSS losses. eGaN FETs, from EPC, offer ultra-low QGD for low commutation losses and low QOSS for lower losses when charging and discharging the output capacitance. In addition, the innovative Land Grid Array (LGA), wafer level packaging of EPC’s eGaN FETs allow ultralow inductance in both the high frequency power loop and gate drive loop, and most importantly, the path common to these loops, known as the common source... Read More »

EPC is honored to be recognized as a 2012 All Star by Constant Contact. This status is an annual designation that only 10% of Constant Contact customers achieve. It is awarded to companies making extra efforts to engage customers. We would like to thank all who have supported us. If you are not already receiving our newsletter please join our list @ http://bit.ly/qr28tu

The ability of enhancement mode gallium nitride based power devices, such as the eGaN® FET, to achieve higher efficiencies and higher switching frequencies than possible with silicon MOSFETs has been demonstrated for a variety of applications. With improvements in switching figure of merit provided by eGaN FETs, the packaging and PCB layout parasitics are critical to high performance. This first part of this article will study the effect of parasitic inductance on performance for eGaN FET and MOSFET based point of load (POL) buck converters operating at a switching frequency of 1 MHz, an input voltage of 12 V, an output voltage of 1.2 V, and an output current up to 20 A.

By David Reusch, Ph.D., Director, Applications, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation

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EPC CEO and applications experts will conduct a half-day seminar and technical presentations on GaN FET technology and applications at the IEEE APEC 2013 power electronics industry conference.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — February, 2013 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN®) power FETs will be presenting an educational seminar and several application-focused technical presentations at APEC 2013. The conference will be held in Long Beach, California from March 17th through the 21st.

The Premier Event in Applied Power Electronics™, APEC, focuses on the practical and applied aspects of the power electronics business. It is the leading conference for practicing power electronics professionals addressing a broad range of topics in the use, design, manufacture and... Read More »

The race to commercialize Gan-on-Si technology for power conversion applications continues at an intensified pace. As of December 2012 more than twenty semiconductor vendors have participate in this race led by a group of about seven vendors.

www.bodospower.com

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EPC9004 features eGaN FETs in combination with dedicated GaN FET gate driver from Texas Instruments

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—February 2013 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced the availability of the EPC9004 development board, featuring EPC’s enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistors (FETs). This board demonstrates how recently introduced IC gate drivers, optimized for GaN FETs, make the task of transitioning from silicon power transistors to higher performance eGaN FETs simple and cost effective.

The EPC9004 development board is a 200 V peak voltage, 2 A maximum output current, half bridge featuring the EPC2012 eGaN FET. The EPC2012 is used in combination with the UCC27611... Read More »

Initial shoot-out articles showed that eGaN FETs behave similarly to silicon devices and can be evaluated using the same performance metrics. Although eGaN FETs perform significantly better by most metrics, the eGaN FET ‘body-diode’ forward voltage is higher than its MOSFET counterpart and can be a significant loss component during dead-time. Body diode forward conduction losses alone do not make up all dead-time dependent losses. Diode reverse-recovery and output capacitance losses are also important. In this article, we discuss dead-time management and the need to minimize all dead-time losses.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC Power Electronics Technology

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Wireless charging will be a fast-growing segment of the power electronics industry in 2013. Significant developments began accelerating last year. The “Top 10” developments selected by the PowerPulse editors highlight important trends in wireless charging that will continue in 2013 and beyond.

EPC announced a high efficiency wireless power demonstration system utilizing the high frequency switching capability of gallium nitride transistors. eGaN® FETs from EPC are well suited for these systems because of their ability to operate efficiently at high frequency, voltage, and power. This wireless power demonstration system jointly developed by EPC and WiTricity is a class-D power system operating at 6.78 MHz, and capable of delivering up to 15 W to a load. The purpose of this demonstration system is to simplify the evaluation process of... Read More »

January 2, 2013

Within the power electronics industry, GaN technology is growing out of its niche. The first GaN transistors are winning a growing share of the power electronics market. By Steve Soffels, Denis Marcon, and Stefaan Decoutere, IMEC www.bodospower.com

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January 2, 2013

In this article we show that enhancement mode GaN transistors enable significant efficiency improvements in resonant topologies and demonstrate a practical example of a wireless power transmission system operating in the 6.78 MHz range.

By Alex Lidow PhD, CEO; Michael deRooij PhD, Executive Director of Application Engineering; David Reusch PhD, Director of Application Engineering, EPC Bodo’s Power Systems (www.bodospower.com)

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Innovations are engineers’ intellectual properties. To promote and support engineers’ innovative designs with gallium nitride FETs, EE Times Taiwan and Efficient Conversion Corporation join hands in staging the “GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion – Design Contest”.

The aim is to provide an exchange platform for participating engineers to use ANY EPC’s eGaN FETs in designing:

a. a DC-DC power conversion solution OR b. Class D or Class E audio solution Any participant can submit their own or their teams’ design solution in writing in either Chinese or English.

An expert panel of judges will judge and decide the Top 3 Winners... Read More »

Written by industry experts, “GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion” provides both theory and applications for gallium nitride transistors

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – November 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the publication of a Simplified Chinese edition of its gallium nitride transistor textbook, “GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion”. This textbook provides power system design engineers basic technical and application-focused information on how to design more efficient power conversion systems using gallium nitride-based transistors.

According to Professor Li Yong Dong of Tsing Hua University, “This book reviews materials and development of power devices with a research focus on the new gallium nitride semiconductor materials as well as its characteristics and applications.... Read More »

SEGUNDO, Calif. – November, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces that it has been recognized with a Leading Product Award by EDN China Innovation Award 2012 in its Power Device and Module category. In its eighth year, the EDN China Innovation Award 2012 is the benchmark event for recognizing product innovation by the voting of electronics design engineers and managers worldwide.

“It is an honor to receive this recognition as an industry leading product from EDN China magazine. The EPC2012 is one member of our family of eGaN FETs being adopted by customers as higher performance replacements for silicon-based MOSFETs,” noted... Read More »

Tech writer Ashok Bindra discusses the latest advances in silicon carbide, gallium nitride, and silicon devices for power electronics applications in a new monthly column sponsored by Cree, Inc. and Efficient Power Conversion Corp.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb10039506.htm

EPC9003 and EPC9006 demonstrate the ease of designing with eGaN FETs with ready-made, easy to connect development boards and well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—October, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of two development boards, the EPC9003 and the EPC9006, both featuring EPC’s enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistors (FETs). These boards demonstrate how the recent introductions of IC gate drivers, optimized for eGaN FETs, make the task of transitioning from silicon to eGaN technology simple and cost effective.

The EPC9003 development board is a half bridge configuration containing two 200 V EPC2010 eGaN FETs with a 5 A maximum output current using the low-side gate driver optimized for GaN devices, the LM5114 from Texas Instruments. The EPC2010 is designed for use in applications such as solar microinverters, class D audio amplifiers, Power over Ethernet (PoE), and synchronous rectification.

... Read More »

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – October, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, (www.epc-co.com) the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride FET technology, announces today that it has been recognized with inclusion in the EE Times Silicon 60 list of 60 Emerging Startups. Companies are selected by the editorial team at EE Times based on a mix of criteria including: technology, intended market, maturity, financial position, investment profile, and executive leadership.

“It is an honor to receive this recognition from EE Times as one of the hottest emerging electronics companies and as EE Times has noted, ‘an emerging company worthy of tracking,’” commented Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation.

ompared to state-of-the-art silicon power MOSFETs, EPC’s eGaN® FETs are smaller and have many times superior switching... Read More »

So far in this series, significant efforts have been made to show the performance improvements that can be achieved with eGaN® FETs over silicon MOSFETS in both hard and soft switching applications. In every case, eGaN FETs showed improvement over MOSFETs. In this volume of the eGaN FET-Silicon power shoot-out series, the die size optimization process is discussed and an example application is used to show specific results.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC
Power Electronics Technology

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Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) Market Leading eGaN® FET Receives Top 10 Power Products Award from Electronic Products China

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – September, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces that its EPC9102 has been recognized by Electronic Products China with a Top 10 Power Products Award – Technology Breakthrough Award.

The EPC9102 is an isolated 1/8th brick converter. This board is a 36 V – 60 V input to 12 V output, 375 kHz phase-shifted full bridge converter with 17 A maximum output current. The EPC9102 demonstrates that an eGaN FET based DC/DC converter helps... Read More »

eGaN FETs exhibit a positive temperature coefficient across their entire operating range, thus overcoming a performance limitation of the silicon MOSFET.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—September 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is releasing safe operating area (SOA) data for their entire product line of eGaN FETs. The positive temperature coefficient across virtually their entire operating range allows a square SOA limited only by average device temperature.

SOA is an indicator of the device’s ability to transfer heat away from a resistive junction. The more efficient a device is at getting rid of generated heat, the lower thermal resistance and the better the SOA performance.

EPC’s eGaN FETs have many major advantages over the power MOSFET needed for today’s high performance applications. eGaN FET’s offer superior... Read More »

The advantages provided by eGaN FETs in hard switching isolated and non-isolated applications have been addressed previously. Here, we demonstrate the ability of the eGaN FET to improve efficiency and output power density in a soft switching application, compared to what is achievable with existing power MOSFET devices.

By David Reusch, Ph.D., Director of Applications, EPC
Power Electronics Technology

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Superior switching speeds of EPC’s eGaN FETs increases the efficiency of power electronics for highly resonant wireless power transfer.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—August 13, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced a high efficiency wireless power demonstration system utilizing the high frequency switching capability of gallium nitride transistors. eGaN FETs from EPC are an ideal solution for these systems because of their ability to operate efficiently at high frequency, voltage, and power.

Highly resonant wireless power transfer was invented by the founders of WiTricity, and WiTricity licenses its intellectual property to companies seeking to build products based on this exciting new technology. Capable of transferring power over distance, WiTricity technology enables a wide range of consumer, medical, industrial... Read More »

Gallium Nitride transistors have been available since Eudyna and Nitronex first introduced depletion-mode RF transistors in about 2005. Since then many new companies have entered the field with both RF transistors (e.g. RFMD, Triquint, Cree, Freescale, Integra, HRL, M/A-COM, and others), and transistors designed to replace power MOSFETs in power conversion applications (e.g. Transphorm, International Rectifier, GaN Systems, microGaN, and Efficient Power Conversion). This article discusses if this ground swell of activity mean that GaN transistors are ready to replace power MOSFETs, and, if so, why?

By Alex Lidow, Ph.D., CEO, EPC
Power Pulse.Net

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Wireless power applications are gaining popularity in many commodity products such as mobile phones chargers. Enhancement mode gallium nitride transistors offer an alternative to MOSFET technology as they can switch fast enough to be ideal for wireless power applications. This article focuses on experimental evaluation of an induction coil wireless energy system using eGaN FETs operating at 6.78 MHz designed to be suitable for multiple 5 W USB based charging loads.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC and Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC Power Electronics Technology

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In this article, we show that using GaN Transistors such as Efficient Power Conversion’s eGaN® FETs can improve the efficiency of isolated eighth brick DC-DC converters. This type of power converters is used extensively in mainframes, servers and telecommunication systems, and is available in a variety of sizes, output power capability, and input and output voltage ranges. Its modularity, power density, reliability and versatility have simplified the isolated power supply market.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC
Bodo’s Power Systems

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EPC9102 showcases the performance that can be achieved using the EPC2001 eGaN FETs and the LM5113 eGaN FET driver from Texas Instruments

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—May, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces the EPC9102, a fully functional eighth brick converter. This board is a 36 V – 60 V input to 12 V output, 375 kHz phase-shifted full bridge (PSFB) eighth brick converter with 17 A maximum output current. The EPC9102 uses the 100 V EPC2001 eGaN FETs in conjunction with the recently introduced LM5113 100V half-bridge gate driver from Texas Instruments. The LM5113 is the industry’s first driver to optimally drive and fully release the benefits of enhancement mode gallium nitride FETs. The EPC9102 demonstrates the performance capabilities of high switching frequency eGaN FETs when coupled with this eGaN driver.

... Read More »

Dr. Reusch will be creating benchmark power converter designs and assisting customers in the use of eGaN FETs® for high frequency, high performance power conversion systems

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—May 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce that Dr. David Reusch has joined the EPC engineering team as Director, Applications Engineering.

As a member of the EPC applications team, Dr. Reusch’s focus will be on designing lower loss and higher power density benchmark circuits that demonstrate the benefits of using gallium nitride transistors. His initial focus will be on their use in higher voltage DC-DC converters and resonant, soft-switching converters. Dr. Reusch’s research and experience in these applications will be shared with customers... Read More »

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—May, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) CEO Alex Lidow will speak at the private Credit Suisse investor conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 22, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time. Dr. Lidow will discuss the growing market for gallium nitride transistors with a focus on EPC’s eGaN® FET technology and products. As a displacement technology, GaN FETs can be used in an array of current MOSFET applications in addition to enabling new high volume applications, such as wireless power and envelope tracking, a method for significant energy savings in communication devices.

Following the presentation, it will be archived for viewing on the EPC website (www-epc-co.com).

... Read More »

Envelope tracking (ET) for radio frequency (RF) amplifiers is not new. But with the ever increasing need for improved cell phone battery life, better base station energy efficiency, and more output power from very costly RF transmitters, the need for improving the RF Power Amplifier (PA) system efficiency through ET has become an intense topic of research and development.

We demonstrate what power and efficiency levels are readily realizable using eGaN FETs in a buck converter for high power envelope tracking applications.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC Power Electronics Technology

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The GaN power device industry has probably generated less than $2.5M revenues in 2011, as only 2 companies (IRF & EPC Corp.) are selling products on the open market. However, the overall GaN activity has seen extra revenues as R&D contracts, qualification tests and sampling for qualified customers was extremely buoyant.

http://www.news10.com/story/17735484/power-gan-2012?clienttype=printable

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – April, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, (www.epc-co.com) the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride FET technology, announces today that it has been recognized with inclusion in the EE Times Silicon 60 list of 60 Emerging Startups. Companies are selected by the editorial team at EE Times based on a mix of criteria including: technology, intended market, maturity, financial position, investment profile, and executive leadership.

"It is an honor to receive this recognition from EE Times as one of the hottest emerging electronics companies and as EE Times has noted, 'an emerging company worthy of tracking,'" commented Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation.

Compared to state-of-the-art silicon power MOSFETs with similar on-resistance, EPC's eGaN® FETs are smaller and have many times superior switching performance. Applications that benefit from eGaN FETs' enhanced performance include RF envelope tracking, wireless power transmission, high-speed DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, hard-switched and high frequency circuits.

... Read More »

Written by Peter Clarke - 3/7/2012 2:20 PM EST

LONDON - The market for power devices implemented in gallium nitride was less than $2.5 million in 2011, according to market research firm Yole Developpement (Lyon, France). However, there is a great deal of R&D activity and Yole sees the power GaN market growing to nearly $0 million in 2012 and $500 million in 2016.

International Rectifier Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) and Efficient Power Conversion Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) are likely to remain the two main vendors of GaN power devices in early 2012 and the annual market is likely to say below $10 million, Yole said.

The year of 2013 should see a transition from product qualification to production for a number of GaN power chip companies as the annual market climbs to $50 million. The availability in 2015 power devices built... Read More »

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) introduced a low-side gate driver for use with MOSFETs and Gallium-Nitride (GaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) in high-density power converters. The new LM5114 drives GaN FETs and MOSFETs in low-side applications, such as synchronous rectifiers and power factor converters. Together with the LM5113, the industry's first 100-V half-bridge GaN FET driver announced in 2011, the family provides a complete isolated DC/DC conversion driver solution for high-power GaN FETs and MOSFETs used in high-performance telecom, networking and data center applications. For more information, samples and an evaluation board, visit... Read More »

Written by industry experts, "GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion" provides both theory and applications for gallium nitride transistors

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - January 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the publication of a textbook designed to provide power system design engineers basic technical and application-focused information on how to design more efficient power conversion systems using gallium nitride-based transistors.

"This book will help designers to understand the exceptional benefits of GaN technology and the intricacies of working with GaN transistors in power conversion systems. It will set the stage for a new era in power electronics applications that surpass everything that came before it," noted Sam Davis, Editor-in-Chief, Power Electronics Technology magazine.

... Read More »

EL SEGUNDO, Calif-January 3, 2012 — The National LM5113 from Texas Instruments has been honored with an Electronic Products’ Product of the Year award. The editors of Electronic Products — a leading trade publication for electronic design engineers — evaluated thousands of products launched in 2011. The winning products were selected on the basis of innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application and substantial achievement in price and performance.

The LM5113 is the industry’s first driver designed specifically for enhancement mode gallium nitride FETs. Enhancement-mode GaN FETs enable new levels of efficiency and power density compared to standard metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) due to their low on-resistance (Rdson) and gate charge (Qg) as well as their ultra-small footprint,... Read More »

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – December, 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces today that it has been recognized with a Leading Product Award by EDN China Innovation Award 2011 in its Power Device and Module category. In its seventh year, the EDN China Innovation Award 2011 is the benchmark event for recognizing product innovation by China’s electronics design engineers and managers.

“It is an honor to receive this recognition as an industry leading product from EDN China. The EPC2010 is one member of our family of eGaN FETs being adopted by customers as higher performance replacements for silicon-based MOSFETs,” noted Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation.

EPC2010 is EPC’s second-generation 200 Volt enhancement mode gallium nitride (eGaN) power transistor with high frequency switching,... Read More »

EPC9101 demonstrates size reduction and efficiency enhancement for buck power conversion achieved using high frequency switching eGaN power transistors

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—October 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces the EPC9101, a fully functional buck power conversion demonstration circuit. This board is an 8 V-19 V input to 1.2 V, 18 A maximum output current, 1MHz buck converter. It uses the EPC2014 and EPC2015 eGaN FETs in conjunction with the recently introduced National LM5113 100V half-bridge gate driver from Texas Instruments. The LM5113 is the industry’s first driver designed specifically for enhancement mode gallium nitride FETs. The EPC9101 demonstrates the reduced size and performance capabilities of high switching frequency eGaN FETs when coupled with this dedicated eGaN driver.

The... Read More »

EPC has received ISO certification for the design, development, marketing and sales of gallium nitride power transistors and power management devices

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – September 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) the leader in energy-efficient enhancement mode gallium nitride (eGaN®) power transistors used in power conversion applications, has received the International Organization for Standardization ISO 9001:2008 certification for its quality management system.

The ISO standards are published by the International Organization for Standardization and available through national standards bodies. To achieve certification, EPC passed an assessment conducted by Det Norske Veritas, an ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) certified auditor.

Upon receiving ISO certification, Alex Lidow,... Read More »

EPC9006 facilitates rapid design of high frequency switching power conversion systems based on the 100 V EPC2007 with a ready-made and easy-to-connect development board including well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—September, 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces the EPC9006 development board to make it easier for engineers to start designing with a 100 V enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET) in applications such as high-speed DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, hard-switched and high frequency circuits.

The EPC9006 development board is a 100 V maximum device voltage, 5 A maximum output current, half bridge with onboard gate drives, featuring the EPC2007 enhancement mode (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET).... Read More »

EPC2007 delivers high frequency switching with enhanced performance in lead-free, RoHS compliant package.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – September, 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the introduction of the EPC2007 as the newest member of EPC’s second-generation enhanced performance eGaN FET family. The EPC2007 is environmentally friendly; being lead free, RoHS-compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), and halogen free.

The EPC2007 FET is a 1.87 mm2, 100 VDS, 6 A device with a maximum RDS(ON) of 30 milliohms. This second generation eGaN FET provides significant performance advantages over the first-generation EPC1007 eGaN device. The EPC2007 is fully enhanced at a lower gate voltage and has greater immunity to fast switching transients than the predecessor.

Compared to a state-of-the-art... Read More »

EPC9005 facilitates rapid design of high frequency switching power conversion systems based on the 40 V EPC2014 with a ready-made and easy-to-connect development board including well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—August 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces the EPC9005 development board to make it easier for users to start designing with a 40 V enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET) in applications such as high-speed DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, hard-switched and high frequency circuits.

The EPC9005 development board is a 40 V maximum device voltage, 7 A maximum output current, half bridge with on board gate drives, featuring the EPC2014 40 V eGaN FET. The purpose of this development board is to simplify the evaluation process of the EPC2014 eGaN FET by including all the critical components on a single board that can be easily connected into an existing converter.

... Read More »

EPC2014 delivers high frequency switching with enhanced performance in lead-free, RoHS compliant package.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – August 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the introduction of the EPC2014 as the newest member of EPC’s second-generation enhanced performance eGaN FET family. The EPC2014 is environmentally friendly; being lead free, RoHS-compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), and halogen free.

The EPC2014 FET is a 1.87 mm2, 40 VDS, 10 A device with a maximum RDS(ON) of 16 milliohms with 5 V applied to the gate. This eGaN FET provides significant performance advantages over the first-generation EPC1014 eGaN device. The EPC2014 has an increase in maximum junction temperature rating to 150 degrees C and is fully enhanced at a lower gate voltage than the predecessor EPC1014.

... Read More »

EPC2012 delivers high frequency switching with enhanced performance in lead-free, RoHS compliant package.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – August 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the introduction of the EPC2012 as the newest member of EPC’s second-generation enhanced performance eGaN FET family. The EPC2012 is environmentally friendly; being lead free, RoHS-compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances), and halogen free.

The EPC2012 FET is a 1.6 mm2 200 VDS device with a maximum RDS(ON) of 100 milliohms with 5 V applied to the gate. This eGaN FET provides significant performance advantages over the first-generation EPC1012 eGaN device. The EPC2012 has an increased pulsed current rating of 15 A (compared with 12 A for the EPC1012), is fully enhanced at a lower gate voltage, and has superior dv/dt... Read More »

EPC9004 facilitates rapid design of high frequency switching power conversion systems based on the 200 V EPC2012 with a ready-made, easy to connect development board and well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—August 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced the introduction of the EPC9004 development board to make it easier for users to start designing with EPC’s 200 V enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET) in applications such as solar microinverters, class D audio amplifiers, Power over Ethernet (PoE), and synchronous rectification.

The EPC9004 development board is a 200 V maximum input voltage, 2 A maximum output current, half bridge with on board gate drives, featuring the EPC2012 200 V eGaN FET. The purpose of this development board is to... Read More »

 

National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) today introduced the industry’s first 100V half-bridge gate driver optimized for use with enhancement-mode Gallium-Nitride (GaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) in high-voltage power converters. Enhancement-mode GaN FETs enable new levels of efficiency and power density compared to standard metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) due to their low on-resistance (Rdson) and gate charge (Qg) as well as their ultra-small footprint, but driving them reliably presents significant new challenges. National’s LM5113 driver integrated circuit (IC) eliminates these challenges, enabling power designers to realize the benefits of GaN FETs in a variety of popular power topologies.

http://www.national.com/news/en/2011june20_lm5113.html

... Read More »

 

EPC2010 delivers high frequency switching with enhanced performance in lead-free, RoHS compliant package.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – June 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the introduction of the EPC2010 as the newest member of EPC’s second-generation enhanced performance eGaNfield effect transistor (FET) family. The EPC2010 is environmentally friendly, being both lead-free and RoHS-compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances).

The EPC2010 FET is a 200 VDS device with a maximum RDS(ON) of 25 milliohms with 5 V applied to the gate. This eGaN FET provides significant performance advantages over the first-generation EPC1010 eGaN device. The EPC2010 has an increased pulsed current rating of 60 A (compared with 40 A for the EPC1010), improved RDS(ON) at very low gate voltages, and lower... Read More »

 

EPC9003 facilitates rapid design of high frequency switching power conversion systems based upon the 200 V EPC2010 with ready-made, easy to connect development board and well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—June 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced the introduction of the EPC9003 development board to make it easier for users to start designing with EPC’s 200V enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET) in applications such as solar microinverters, class D audio amplifiers, Power over Ethernet (PoE), and synchronous rectification.

The EPC9003 development board is a 200 V maximum input voltage, 5 A maximum output current, half bridge with on board gate drives, featuring the EPC2010 200V eGaN FET. The purpose of this development board is to simplify the evaluation process of the EPC2010 eGaN FET by including all the critical components on a single board that can be easily connected into any existing converter.

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif-May 4, 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s (EPC) family of enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN®) power FETs has won the Energy Technology Award issued as part of the prestigious EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards. These awards celebrate the creators of technology who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the global industry and shape the world we which we live.

“We are very proud to have won the ACE Award. This award substantiates that EPC’s enhancement-mode GaN power transistors represent a major breakthrough in power conversion technology. We believe that performance from silicon-based MOSFETs has reached the end of the road and that eGaN technology will lead the way for continued increases in performance in power management.” said Alex Lidow, EPC’s co-founder... Read More »

Microsemi is working with Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) www.epc-co.com in the development of a complete line of high performance FETS for high reliability space and military applications. A jointly researched paper entitled "Enhancement Mode Gallium Nitride Characteristics Under Long Term Stress" will be presented at the Government Microcircuit Applications and Critical Technology Conference (GOMAC), March 21-24, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. The study covers the reliability testing results and demonstrates the stability of the devices at temperature and under radiation exposure.

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif-March 15, 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) has been named a finalist in the EE Times 2011 Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards (http://www.eetimes-ace.com/finalists.php). These annual awards celebrate the creators of technology who demonstrate leadership and innovation in the global industry and shape the world we live in.

EPC has been recognized as a finalist within the Energy Technology Award category. This new category recognizes companies that have made the most significant contribution through the introduction of new concepts and products that help conserve energy or create new energy sources.

EPC eGaN FETs have both lower conduction losses and are capable of much higher switching frequencies than power MOSFETs or IGBTs. These advantages of eGaN technology can be applied... Read More »

 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - March 15, 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announce the introduction of the EPC2001 and EPC2015, two lead-free, RoHS-compliant (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN™) FETs.

The EPC2001 FET is a 100 VDS device with a maximum RDS(ON) of 7 milliohms with 5 V applied to the gate, and the EPC2015 is a 40 VDS with a maximum RDS(ON) of 4 milliohms. Both eGaN FETs provide significant performance advantages over similar state-of-the-art silicon-based power MOSFETs. Both devices have low on resistance, are smaller than silicon devices with similar resistance and have many times superior switching performance.

Applications that benefit from eGaN FET performance increases include DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class... Read More »

The eGaN FET is a viable and efficient alternative to standard MOSFET solutions in Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications. These FETs enable higher operating frequencies that can be leveraged into reduced converter size and cost. Both 13W and 26W PoE eGaN FET converters were built and evaluated side by side with standard MOSFET designs. In every instance, eGaN FET converters exhibited higher efficiencies with the potential of reducing system cost over their MOSFET counterparts.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC
Michael de Rooij, Ph.D., Director of Applications, EPC
March 1, 2011

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Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) Market Leading eGaN™ FET Named Finalist in Prestigious 2010 EDN Innovation Awards Competition

EL SEGUNDO, Calif-February 23, 2011 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s EPC1010 enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN™) power FET has been named a finalist in EDN’s 21st annual Innovation Awards http://innovation.edn.com/) within the Power IC’s category.

“We are proud that EDN has selected an eGaN FET product as a finalist. This selection supports our belief that performance from silicon-based MOSFETs has reached the end of the road and that eGaN technology will lead the way for continued increases in performance in power transistors.” said Alex Lidow, EPC’s co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.

EDN readers participate in the determination of the ultimate... Read More »

eGaN FETs differ from silicon MOSFETs in part because of their significantly faster switching speeds. In the second article of this series, we explore the different requirements for gate drive, layout, and thermal management.

By Johan Strydom PHD, Director of Application Engineering, EPC
Power Electronics Technology
January 1, 2011

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif-January 6, 2011 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s (EPC) family of enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN™) power FETs have been honored with an Electronic Products’ Product of the Year award.

The editors of Electronic Products — a leading trade publication for electronic design engineers — evaluated thousands of products launched in 2010. The winning products were selected on the basis of innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application and substantial achievement in price and performance. The eGaN FETs demonstrated success in the category of discrete semiconductors.

The enhanced-mode GaN FETs from EPC are a significant step in the realization of new products for designers,” said Paul O’Shea, Senior Editor for Electronic Products Magazine. “They have less... Read More »

The intermediate bus architecture (IBA) is currently the most popular power system architecture in computing and telecommunications equipment. It typically consists of a +48 V system power distribution bus that feeds on-board bus converters, which in turn supply power to nonisolated, dc-dc converters. These nonisolated converters generate the low supply voltages required to power the various logic circuits. Because of their proximity to the circuits they power, these converters are commonly referred to as point-of-load converters (POLs).

By Johan Strydom, EPC, El Segundo, Calif. and Bob White, Embedded Power Labs, Highlands Ranch, Colo. How2Power November, 2010

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif-November 18, 2010 -Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s (EPC) family of enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN™) power FETs have been awarded the “Editor’s Choice Award” in the power device and module segment of the 2010 EDN China Innovation Awards.

"Enhancement-mode eGaN by Efficient Power Conversion Corporation was honored with Editor's Choice Award by EDN China Innovation Award's panel of judges based on the online voting by the Chinese design engineers. It is the best-recognized product yet to be fully adopted in target markets. We also recognize EPC's potential significant contribution to the Chinese engineering communities with its innovations to set a new course in the power technology roadmap", said William Zhang, Publisher of EDN China.

“We are proud that the panel of judges... Read More »

As enhancement mode gallium-nitride-on-silicon transistors (eGaN™) gain wider acceptance as the successor to the venerable - but aged - power MOSFET, designers have been able to improve power conversion efficiency, size, and cost. eGaN FETs, however, are based on a relatively new and immature technology with limited design infrastructure to quickly design and implement products.

By Johan Strydom PhD, Director of Application Engineering EPC
Bodo’s Power Systems
November, 2010

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced that the company has made available updated device models for all of its enhancement mode gallium nitride (eGaN™) transistors on its web site.

These updates improve the robustness of the models without changing the core equations. Performance predictions with the new models will be consistent with previous versions of EPC SPICE models.

TSPICE, PSPICE, LTSPICE, and Spectre device models are provided to help designers of advanced eGaN-based power conversion circuits and systems understand the value of the EPC eGaN power transistor family and reduce their time-to-market with benchmark products.

These free downloads are available at:

http://epc-co.com/epc/ToolsandDesignSupport/DeviceModels.aspx

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The latest report from Yole Développement “GaN Technologies for Power Electronics Applications: Industry and Market Status & Forecasts” says the Total Accessible Market is $16.6b and is envisioned to be split into Power ICs, Power Discretes and Power Modules.

Compound Semiconductor
October 28, 2010

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Efficient Power Conversion’s (EPC) enhancement-mode gallium-nitride (eGaN) power transistors, although similar to standard power MOSFETs, deliver performance unattainable by silicon-based devices.

Yanping Ma, PhD, Efficient Power Conversion, El Segundo, Calif.
How2Power
October, 2010

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The recent introduction of enhancement mode GaN transistors (eGaN™) as power MOSFET/ IGBT replacements in power management applications enables many new products that promise to add great system value. In general, an eGaN transistor behaves much like a power MOSFET with a quantum leap in performance, but to extract all of the newly-available eGaN transistor performance requires designers to understand the differences in drive requirements.

By Johan Strydom and Alex Lidow
September, 2010

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One yardstick to compare enhancement mode GaN (eGaN) power devices with state-of-the-art silicon MOSFETs is FOM. However, beyond these pure mathematical numbers, there are other device and package related parameters that significantly influence in-circuit performance.

By Johan Strydom PHD, Director of Application Engineering, EPC
Power Electronics Technology
September 1, 2010

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Thirty years of silicon power-MOSFET development has taught us that one of the key variables controlling the adoption rate of a disruptive technology is how easy the new technology is to use. This principle has guided the design of EPC’s enhancement-mode GaN (eGaN) transistors. This article explains why eGaN devices are easy to use, describing how they operate and their similarities and differences versus power MOSFETs.

By Johan Strydom
How2Power
June, 2010

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Due to its advantages GaN will probably become the dominant technology. GaN has a much higher critical electric field than silicon which enables this new class of devices to withstand much greater voltage from drain to source with much less penalty in on-resistance.

By Alex Lidow, PhD
Bodo’s Power Systems
June, 2010

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Recent breakthroughs by EPC in processing gallium nitride (GaN) have produced enhancement-mode devices with high conductivity and hyper-fast switching, with a silicon-like cost structure and fundamental operating mechanism.

By Robert Beach, Steve Colino
Electronic Design
April 29, 2010

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For the past three decades, Silicon-based power management efficiency and cost have shown steady improvement. In the last few years, however, the rate of improvement has slowed as the Silicon power MOSFET has asymptotically approached its theoretical bounds. Gallium Nitride grown on top of a silicon substrate could displace Silicon across a significant portion of the power management market.

By Alex Lidow, PhD
Power Electronics Europe
Issue 2, 2010

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced the introduction of the EPC9002 development board to make it easier for users to get started designing with EPC’s 100V enhancement-mode GaN transistor products.

The EPC9002 development board is a 50 V maximum input voltage, 7 A maximum output current, half bridge with onboard gate drives, featuring the EPC1001 100V GaN Power Transistor. The purpose of this development board is to simplify the evaluation process of the EPC1001 GaN power transistor by including all the critical components on a single board that can be easily connected into any existing converter. The EPC9002 development board is 2” x 1.5” and contains not only two EPC1001 GaN transistors in a half bridge configuration with gate drivers, but also an on board gate drive... Read More »

 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced that the company has made available on its web site SPICE models for all of its enhancement mode GaN transistors.

TSPICE, PSPICE, and LTSPICE device models have been developed to help the designer of advanced GaN-based power conversion circuits and systems understand the value of this new power transistor family and reduce their time-to-market with benchmark products. These free downloads are available at:

http://epc-co.com/epc/ToolsandDesignSupport/DeviceModels.aspx

EPC has also written an application note to help users understand enhancement mode GaN transistor capabilities and the applicability of the SPICE models. This application note... Read More »

 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif-March 8, 2010 -Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today introduced a family of enhancement mode power transistors based on its proprietary Gallium Nitride on Silicon technology.

Spanning a range of 40 Volts to 200 Volts, and 4 milliohms to 100 milliohms, these power transistors demonstrate significant performance advantages over state-of-the-art silicon-based power MOSFETs. EPC’s technology produces devices that are smaller than similar resistance silicon devices and have many times superior switching performance. Applications that benefit from this newly available performance are DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, notebook and netbook computers, LED drive circuits, telecom base stations, and cell phones, to name just a few.

EPC’s enhancement mode (normally... Read More »

 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - March 8, 2010 -Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced that Digi Key Corporation will be the exclusive global distributor for EPC’s line of enhancement-mode Gallium Nitride power transistors.

Spanning a range of 40 Volts to 200 Volts, and 4 milliohms to 100 milliohms, these power transistors demonstrate significant performance advantages over state-of-the-art silicon-based power MOSFETs. EPC’s technology produces devices that are smaller than similar resistance silicon devices and have many times superior switching performance. Applications that benefit from this newly available performance are DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, notebook and netbook computers, LED drive circuits, telecom base stations, and cell phones, to name just a few.

... Read More »

Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) recently introduced the first enhancement-mode GaN-on-silicon power transistors designed specifically as power MOSFET replacements. These products were designed to be produced in high-volume at low cost using standard silicon manufacturing technology and facilities.

By Alex Lidow, PhD
ECN
March 2, 2010

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