EPC's chief executive, Alex Lidow, believes his GaN devices now beat silicon on performance and price, reports Rebecca Pool.

For EPC chief executive, Alex Lidow, this year's PCIM Europe 2019 has been all about applications. Presenting myriad enhanced-mode GaN FETs and ICs in end-products, the company is making a big play for 48 V DC-DC power conversion in advanced computing and automotives.

Compound Semiconductor
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Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has recently introduced two new, 100V, GaN devices that are able to handle 48V server and automotive needs. I will be examining the 48V server power solutions to the processor as well as in automotive and energy storage systems (See my article Bi-directional DC/DC power supplies: Which way do we go?) bi-directional supplies, in an EDN exclusive article coming up in the near future. GaN power transistors MUST be a part of these kinds of architectures; from my point-of-view there is no better alternative. Planet Analog Read article Read more

New converter topologies and power transistors promise to reduce the size and boost the efficiency of supplies that will run next-generation Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms. In all the topologies with 48 VIN, the highest efficiency comes with using GaN devices. This is due to their lower capacitance and smaller size. With recent pricing declines in GaN power transistors, the cost comparison with silicon-based converters now strongly favors GaN in all the leading-edge solutions. Power Electronic Tips March, 2019 Read article Read more

With the power architecture transition from a 12 V to a 48 V bus power distribution in modern data centers, there is an increased demand to improve 48 V power conversion efficiency and power density. In this context, DC-DC converters designed using eGaN® FETs and ICs provide a high efficiency and high power density solution. Additionally, with the advent of 48 V power systems in mild-hybrid, hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, GaN transistors can provide a reduction in size, weight, and Bill of Materials (BOM) cost. Power Systems Design Read article Read more

With the emergence of the 48V bus architecture, a new hybrid converter using gallium nitride (GaN) transistors can be employed which achieves a peak efficiency that exceeds 95% and with 225W/in³ power density. Of great interest for data center applications, where light load efficiency is critical for energy savings, the converter efficiency is kept higher than 90% down to a 20% load.

PowerPulse
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EPC2111 GaN half bridge offers power systems designers a solution that increases efficiency for complete overall point-of-load system applications over 85% at 14 A when switching at 5 MHz and over 80% when switching at 10 MHz and converting from 12 V to 1.8 V. EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — June2017 — EPC announces the EPC2111, 30 V enhancement-mode monolithic GaN transistor half bridge. By integrating two eGaN® power FETs into a single device, interconnect inductances and the interstitial space needed on the PCB are eliminated.  This increases both efficiency (especially at ... Read more

During last week's PCIM Europe event in Nuremberg, Germany, direct 48V-to-1V power conversion architectures were a significant topic. “The use of GaN switches in 48V-to-1V direct dc-dc converters can improve system performance by 30%, compared with today’s best silicon-based designs,” commented Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion.

PowerPulse
May 31, 2017
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Max Smolaks welcomes gallium nitride, a new material which will replace silicon in the power chain

For the past 35 years, most power supplies have relied on power MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) – voltage-controlled devices made of silicon that are used to switch and condition electricity.

Data Center Dynamics
April 19, 2017
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As deep learning proliferates, the question of data center power density is once again on the rise, creating new business opportunities for specialized cloud services, hosted in facilities that can support north of 30 kW per rack, and companies in the power conversion space, who can tackle the density issue by making systems more energy efficient. Replacing silicon as the semiconductor material in power conversion chips with gallium nitrate, or GaN, leads to much smaller and more energy efficient devices that provide much faster switching. Data Center Knowledge February, 2017 Read ... Read more

In this slidecast, Alexander Lidow from EPC describes how the company is leading a technological revolution with Gallium Nitride (GaN). More efficient than silicon as a basis for electronics, GaN could save huge amounts of energy in the datacenter and has the potential to fuel the computer industry beyond Moore’s Law.

insideHPC
July 20, 2016
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Claude Shannon started it all when he wrote “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” in 1948 in which he reduced the communication of information to 1s and 0s, essentially binary digits. That theory led to the ability to transmit data without error in the noise-filled environment of the real world. Shannon would have been 100 years old on April 30, 2016. EDN Network Steve Taranovich April 16, 2016 Read article Read more

Glamour items like energy harvesting and wireless power transfer are likely to make "guest appearances" at next week's APEC Conference. GaN transistor deployments will be carefully monitored. But on-going efforts to promote data-center energy transfer efficiency retain their "bread-and-butter" utility.

EE Times
By: Stephan Ohr, Consultant, Semiconductor Industry Analyst
March 16, 2016
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The demand for information in our society is growing at an unprecedented rate. With emerging technologies, such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things, this trend for more and faster access to information is showing no signs of slowing. What makes the transfer of information at high rates of speed possible are racks and racks of servers, mostly located in centralized data. EEWeb Alex Lidow, Ph.D., David Reusch, Ph.D., and John Glaser, Ph.D. March, 2016 Read article on page 24 Read more

Improving low-voltage DC/DC converter performance with GaN transistors: The emergence of commercially available and cost-effective gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors begins a new age in power electronics. There are significant benefits in using enhancement-mode gallium nitride FET (eGaN FET) devices in power converters for existing data center and telecommunications architectures centering around an input voltage of 48 VDC with load voltages as low as 1 VDC. High-performance GaN power transistors can enable new approaches to power data center and telecommunications systems with ... Read more

In 2014, data centers in the United States consumed approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy. To add insult to injury, the power needed to support this rapidly growing demand comes from an electrical grid that is wildly inefficient and is based on infrastructure that was created, in large part, more than a century ago. Just how significant is this waste? It turns out that the power grid supplies 150W of power to meet the demands of a digital chip that may need only 100W. Moreover, the amount of wasted energy is even greater because every watt of power lost through power ... Read more