Gallium nitride and silicon carbide are designated wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductors based on the energy required to shift electrons in these materials from the valence to the conduction band — about 3.2 eV for SiC and 3.4 eV for GaN, compared with just 1.1 eV for silicon. The WBG properties lead to a higher applicable breakdown voltage, which can reach up to 1,700 V in some applications. At this year’s digital only PCIM Europe, held in May, several companies showed their latest innovations in GaN and SiC and offered insights on where WBG technology is headed.

EE Times – Europe
July, 2021
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These new generation eGaN^® FETs address the new needs of the eMobility, delivery and logistic robot, and drone markets for compact BLDC motor drives and cost-effective high-resolution Time of Flight.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— June, 2021 — EPC, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power FETs and ICs, advances the performance capability while lowering the cost for off-the-shelf gallium nitride transistors with the introduction of EPC2065 and EPC2054

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) introduces a new family of radiation-hardened (rad-hard) gallium nitride (GaN) products for power conversion solutions in critical spaceborne and other high reliability environments.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— June 2021 — EPC announces the introduction of a new family of radiation-hardened gallium nitride transistors and integrated circuits. With higher breakdown strength, faster switching speed, higher thermal conductivity and lower on-resistance, power devices based on GaN significantly outperform silicon-based devices. The lower resistance and gate charge enable faster power supply switching frequencies resulting in higher power densities, higher efficiencies, and more compact and lighter weight circuitry for critical spaceborne missions. Gallium nitride is also inherently radiation tolerant, making GaN-based devices a reliable, higher performing power transistor option for space applications.

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) will showcase the company’s latest enhancement-mode gallium nitride-based FETs and ICs demonstrating how GaN technology’s superior performance is transforming power delivery for automotive, computing, and robotics at the PCIM Europe 2021 Digital Days.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— April 2021 — The EPC team will be delivering two technical presentations, an educational tutorial, an exhibitor webinar, and participating in panel discussions on gallium nitride (GaN) technology and applications at the upcoming PCIM Europe 2021 Digital Days, May 3 – 7. In addition, the company will participate in the event’s virtual exhibition, showing its latest eGaN FETs and ICs in customers’ end products that are rapidly adopting eGaN^® technology.

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) announces the expansion of its new gallium nitride (GaN) integrated circuit (IC) product family offering higher performance and smaller solution size for time-of-flight (ToF) lidar applications including robotics, drones, 3D sensing, gaming, and autonomous cars.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— March 2021 — EPC announces the introduction of a laser driver that integrates a 40 V, 10 A FET with a gate driver and low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) logic level input in a single chip for time-of-flight lidar systems used in robotics, drones, augmented reality, and gaming applications.

The ultra-fast transition EPC2034C eGaN^® FETs used on the EPC9150 enables high current pulses up to 220 A and pulse widths under 3 ns, thus allowing a lidar system to see farther, faster, and better.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— March 2021 — Efficient Power Conversion  (EPC) announces the availability of the EPC9150, a 200 V, high current, pulsed-laser diode driver demonstration board. In a lidar system, used to create 3-D maps for autonomous vehicle applications, speed and accuracy of object detection is critical. As demonstrated by this board, the rapid transition capability of the EPC2034C eGaN FETs provide power pulses to drive the laser diodes, VCSELs or LEDs up to ten times faster than an equivalent MOSFET and in a small fraction of the area, energy, and cost. Thus, enhancing the overall performance, including accuracy, precision, and processing speed as well as the price of a lidar system.

New family of laser driver IC products will enable faster adoption and increased ubiquity of ToF solutions across a wider array of end-user applications.

How2Power
March, 2021
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Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) expands AEC Q101 product family with the addition of the EPC2219, 65 V gallium nitride transistor with integrated reverse gate clamp diode optimized for high resolution lidar systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— March 2021 — EPC announces successful AEC Q101 qualification of the 65 V EPC2219 designed for lidar systems in the automotive industry and other harsh environments. 

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) introduces the first of a new gallium nitride (GaN) integrated circuit (IC) product family offering higher performance and smaller solution size for time-of-flight (ToF) lidar applications including robotics, drones, 3D sensing, and autonomous cars.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— February 2021 — EPC announces the introduction of a laser driver that integrates a 40 V, 10 A FET with integrated gate driver and 3.3 logic level input in a single chip for time-of-flight lidar systems used in robotics, surveillance systems, drones, autonomous cars, and vacuum cleaners.

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) publishes Phase-12 Reliability Report adding to the extensive knowledge found in their first eleven reports. With this report, EPC demonstrates field experience of 226 billion eGaN ^® device hours and a robustness capability unmatched by silicon power devices.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— January 2021 — EPC announces its Phase-12 Reliability Report, documenting the strategy used to achieve a remarkable field reliability record. eGaN devices have been in volume production for more than eleven years and have demonstrated very high reliability in over 226 billion hours of operation, most of which are in vehicles, LTE base stations, and satellites, to name just a few applications with rigorous operating conditions.

An automotive application using GaN power devices in high volume is lidar(light detection and ranging) for autonomous vehicles. Lidar technology provides information about a vehicle’s surroundings, thus requiring high accuracy and reliability to ensure safety and performance. This article will discus a novel testing mechanism developed by EPC to test eGaN devices beyond the qualification requirements of the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) for the specific use case of lidar.

Power Systems Design
December, 2020
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Gallium nitride FETs have continued to gain traction in many power electronic applications, but GaN technology is still in the early part of its life cycle. While there is much room to improve basic FET performance figures of merit an even more promising avenue is the development of GaN power ICs.

Bodo’s Power Systems
November, 2020
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These new generation 100 V eGaN^® FETs are ideal for 48-V_OUT synchronous rectification, class-D audio, infotainment, and lidar.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— September, 2020 — EPC, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power FETs and ICs, advances the performance capability while lowering the cost of off-the-shelf gallium nitride transistors with the introduction of EPC2218 and EPC2204 100 V eGaN FETs.  The applications for these leading-edge devices include synchronous rectification, class-D audio, infotainment systems, DC-DC converters (hard-switched and resonant), and lidar for autonomous cars, robotics, and drones.

Silicon power MOSFETs have not kept pace with the evolutionary changes in the power electronics industry, where factors such as efficiency, power density, and smaller form factors are the main demands of the community. Silicon MOSFETs have reached their theoretical limits for power electronics, and with board space at a premium, power system designers need alternatives. Gallium nitride (GaN) is a high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) semiconductor that is adding real value in emerging applications.

EETimes
August, 2020
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Gallium nitride (GaN) power devices have been in volume production since March 2010 and have established a remarkable field-reliability record. An automotive application using GaN power devices in high volume is lidar (light detection and ranging) for autonomous vehicles. Lidar technology provides information about a vehicle’s surroundings, thus requiring high accuracy and reliability to ensure safety and performance. This article will discuss a novel testing mechanism developed by Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) to test eGaN devices beyond the qualification requirements of the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) for the specific use case of lidar.

eeNews Europe
July 30, 2020
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EPC has posted additional modules to the educational video podcast series focusing on reliability and leading-edge applications including high-density computing for Artificial Intelligence (AI), lidar for robots, drones, and cars, and Class-D audio using gallium nitride FETs and ICs.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – April 2020 – Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) Corporation has posted an update to its popular “How to GaN” video podcast series. The six videos included in the current release of the series provide practical examples to help designers employ GaN technology to create state-of-the-art DC-DC converters for AI servers and ultra-thin laptops, lidar for robots, drones, and autonomous cars, and audio systems with the highest quality acoustics possible.

Alex Lidow is the CEO of Efficient Power Conversion, probably the most prominent advocate for gallium nitride, delivering the first GaN transistor in 2009. After a decade of selling products, DESIGN&ELEKTRONIK editor Ralf Higgelke met him to discuss some of the latest advances in that area.

DESIGN&ELEKTRONIK
February 20, 2020
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Ultra-fast transition eGaN^® FETs from Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) on the EPC9144 drive high current pulses up to 28 A with pulse widths as low as 1.2 ns, enhancing the accuracy, precision, and processing speed of ToF and flash lidar systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— January, 2020 — EPC announces the availability of the EPC9144, a 15 V, 28 A high current pulsed laser diode driver demonstration board.

Within the EPC hospitality suite at the Venetian hotel, world-changing innovations and gallium nitride (GaN) will go hand in hand. A variety of demonstrations will showcase GaN’s higher efficiency, smaller size, and lower cost solutions.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — December 2019 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) announced that it will be demonstrating the power of eGaN^® technology to enhance game-changing consumer applications including self-driving cars, robots, drones, wireless power, world-class audio and cutting-edge automotive solutions – at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 7^th through the 10^th.

It’s getting harder to avoid using GaN power transistors and ICs, says Alex Lidow. There are many reasons to use GaN-on-Si power transistors such as eGaN FETs, in telecoms, vehicles, healthcare and computing. Smaller, faster, lower cost, and more integrated, GaN-on-Si devices have spent a decade gaining the confidence and trust of designers across the spectrum of power conversion applications.

Electronic Specifier
November 20, 2019
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