Gallium nitride (GaN) is a very hard, mechanically stable wide bandgap semiconductor that is used in the production of power devices as well as RF components and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). GaN switching frequency is substantially higher than silicon, enabling power electronics designers to create smaller, more efficient, and higher-performing systems that were previously challenging to achieve with silicon technologies. 

Sustainable energy is crucial in today’s world, and GaN Power ICs can help your company get there. Find out more here from EPC.

Submitted by Richard Locarni, Director of New Business Development, Sensitron and Brian Miller, Field Application Engineer, EPC

The basic building block used in many power systems is the half bridge which consists of two power FETs in series and their respective gate drivers. While discrete FETs and gate drivers can be used to make this function on a board, often it is advantageous to use a half-bridge module.  There are many benefits of using a half-bridge module including the use of a single pre-qualified part, shorter lead times, and higher performance.  Sensitron (sensitron.com) has been a supplier of power modules for over fifty years, and their latest product is even more attractive due to the use of EPC’s eGaN FETs.  Sensitron collaborated with Efficient Power Corporation to use the recently released EPC2050 GaN FET to develop a 350 V half bridge module. Designed for commercial, industrial, and aerospace applications, the SPG025N035P1B half bridge intelligent power module is rated at 20 A and can be used to control over 5 kW.  Shown in Figure 1 is the significant package size reduction which was achieved by upgrading from Si and SiC to GaN:

Back in 2015 Venture Beat published an article on gallium nitride chips taking over from silicon.  In that article I made the assertion that widespread adoption of gallium nitride-based power semiconductors would be possible because GaN FETs would have higher performance AND lower cost than silicon.  Yet, there is still a widespread misconception that GaN has not yet reached that milestone…that is a false myth.  In this blog post, I will attempt to dispel this myth with the caveat that this discussion is limited to devices rated at less than 400 V, as that is the application focus for EPC’s FET and IC products.

It has been more than 12 years since the first GaN-on-Si power transistors started in volume production, and in many applications, such as lidar and space electronics, adoption has been extremely rapid.  But what about other markets such as consumer products, computers, motor drives, and automotive?  Even in each of those areas GaN devices have started to appear in volume as the predicted tipping point of better performance AND lower cost is a reality.

This GaN Talk blog discusses the advantages of using GaN-based inverters instead of silicon-based inverters for motor drive designs to operate smoother while reducing size and weight. These advantages are critical for motor drives used in typical applications such as warehousing & logistical robots, servo drives, e-bikes & e-scooters,  collaborative and low voltage robots and medical robotics, industrial drones, and automotive motors.

Omdia forecasts that worldwide shipments of warehousing and logistics robots will grow rapidly over the next 5 years from 194,000 units in 2018 to 938,000 units annually by 2022, with the rate of growth slowing after 2021 as many major players will have adopted robotic systems by then.  Worldwide revenue for this category will increase from $8.3 billion in 2018 to $30.8 billion in 2022, providing significant opportunities for established participants and emerging players.

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) is doubling the performance distance between the aging silicon power MOSFET and eGaN® transistors with 200 V ratings.  The new fifth-generation devices are about half the size of the prior generation.  This performance boost comes from two main design differences, as shown in figure 1.  On the left is a cross-section of the fourth generation 200 V enhancement-mode GaN-on-Si process.  The cross-section on the right is the fifth-generation structure with reduced distance between gate and source electrodes and an added thick metal layer. These improvements, plus many others not shown, have doubled the performance of the new-generation FETs.