GaN Talk a blog dedicated to crushing silicon
Term: GaN
53 post(s) found

Nov 14, 2023

Selecting the Best GaN Gate Driver

Chang-Woo Ryu, Senior FAE, Korea

Learn about what key factors you should consider when selecting a GaN gate driver. Make the best choice for your power electronics design here.

Aug 08, 2023

Gallium Nitride (GaN)'s Potential in MedTech

Renee Yawger, Director of Marketing

The medical technology industry includes medical devices which simplify the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and chronic illnesses. According to Fortune Business Insights,  The global medical devices market is projected to grow from $495.46 billion in 2022 to $718.92 billion by 2029 at a CAGR of 5.5%.

Aug 02, 2023

A New Approach to Design a More Efficient Vacuum Cleaner Motor Drive Inverter Using EPC9176 Evaluation Boards

Marco Palma, Director of Motor Drives Systems and Applications

Learn how EPC’s new demo board, the EPC9176 with its six QFN-packaged GaN ICs allows for more efficient, high-performance vacuum cleaner motors.

May 10, 2023

GaN Switching Frequency: Using Gallium Nitride Technology in Next-Generation High-Frequency Circuits

Renee Yawger, Director of Marketing

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. 

Jan 20, 2023

Shrink Motor Drives for eBikes and Drones

Marco Palma, Director of Motor Drives Systems and Applications

GaN is a game changer for motor drive applications. For designers to take advantage of this technology, fast and reliable time-to-market is critical. Easy-to-use reference designs using state-of-the-art electronics and techniques provide a valuable tool to speed time to market. The EPC9173 tool allows designers of eBikes and drones to enhance motor system size, performance, range, precision, and torque, all while simplifying design for faster time-to-market.  

The EPC9173 integrates all the necessary circuits to operate a 3-phase BLDC motor with high performance, 48 V input, 1.5kW output, and three-phase inverter using six EPC23101  GaN ICs. Thanks to the high-power density and the high electrical conductivity of GaN ICs, the EPC9173 delivers up to 25 ARMS on each leg and supports PWM switching frequencies up to 250 kHz under a natural convection passive heatsink. The resultant quality of the current output waveforms, lesser torque oscillations, and total system efficiency increase the performance of the motor-drive system. Further, the extremely small size of this inverter allows integration into the motor housing resulting in the lowest EMI, highest density, and lowest weight.

Jan 16, 2023

Myths about Gallium Nitride Semiconductors

Renee Yawger, Director of Marketing

Gallium nitride (GaN) has emerged as the technology to offer greater efficiency, significantly reduce system size and weight, and enable entirely new applications not achievable with silicon. So, why do so many myths still prevail about GaN and what are the facts?

One of the reasons so much misinformation persists about GaN is that suppliers of the incumbent silicon technology use scare tactics including rumors of reliability problems, design challenges, high prices, and unreliable supply chains to dissuade potential GaN users.

Despite these attacks, GaN continues to gain acceptance not only in enabling applications such as lidar, but into traditional applications where the silicon MOSFET previously held the dominant position, like data centers and vehicle electronics. This article will debunk the most common myths about GaN and show how GaN FETs and GaN ICs are creating a displacement cycle in power conversion.

Aug 25, 2022

How to Design a 2 kW 48 V/12 V Bi-Directional Power Module with GaN FETs for 48 V Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Tiziano Morganti, Senior Field Application Engineer at Efficient Power Conversion

Environmental pressures are creating pressure to quickly adopt newer, cleaner, and more efficient transportation options.  In 2025, 1 in 10 vehicles sold are expected to be a more fuel efficient 48 V mild hybrid.  These systems will require a 48V – 12V bidirectional converter, with power ranging from 1.5 kW to 6 kW. The design priorities for these systems are size, cost, and high reliability. GaN power conversion solutions are perfect to support a 48 V to 12 V bidirectional converter used in these newer models.

A new reference design demo board, the EPC9165, is available to help jump start the design of a 2 kW bi-directional converter.  The EPC9165 is a synchronous buck/boost converter with other supporting circuitry including current sensors and temperature sensor.  The EPC9528 controller board ships with the EPC9165 to incorporate digital control and housekeeping power supply; this board uses the dsPIC33CK256MP503 digital controller from Microchip.

Aug 04, 2022

Use the Superior Power Density of Gallium Nitride FETs to Design a USB PD3.1 Power Supply with a 240 W, Universal AC Input

Cecilia Contenti, Vice President Of Strategic Marketing at Efficient Power Conversion

48 volts is increasingly being adopted as the new standard for computing data centers and consumer electronics such as laptops. The new USB PD3.1 standard is also making inroads into laptops driven in part by the increase in USB voltage to 48 V that increases the total power delivery up to 240 W given a current limit of 5 A for the connectors and cables. Compatible power supplies using the new USB PD standard also face increasing pressure to yield a small form factor solution driving the need for high power-density. The fast-switching speed and low RDSon of GaN FETs address this challenge in multiple circuits that make up the power supply.

Aug 03, 2022

CEO Corner – Alex Lidow Dispels the Myth that GaN Devices Cost More than Silicon

Alex Lidow, Ph.D., CEO and Co-founder

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.

May 07, 2022

How to Use the GaN FET Thermal Calculator to Boost Reliability and Shorten Time-To-Market in Power Electronics System Designs

Assaad El Helou, Senior Thermal/Mechanical Engineer, Applications Engineering

When “displacement” technologies such as EPC’s GaN power FETs and ICs are introduced and new levels of performance are possible, modeling your design offers comfort and insight to your circuits’ capabilities and needs. This blog post discussed the latest addition to the “EPC GaN Power Bench, our on-line modeling tool library, EPC’s GaN FET Thermal Calculator