GaN devices offer a plethora of benefits that align well with the demands of the space industry, addressing challenges related to reliability, radiation survivability, and space heritage.

Power Electronics News
August, 2023
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Microinverters and power optimizers are widely utilized in modern solar panels to maximize energy efficiency and conversion. Such topologies and implementations usually require a minimum of 25 years of lifetime, which is becoming a critical challenge for market adoption. Low-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) power devices (VDS rating < 200 V) are a promising solution and are being used extensively by an increasing number of solar manufacturers.

In this article, a test-to-fail approach is adopted and applied to investigate the intrinsic underlying wear-out mechanisms of GaN transistors. The study enables the development of physics-based lifetime models that can accurately project the lifetimes under the unique demands of various mission profiles in solar applications.

How2Power
August, 2023
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As the revolution of renewable energy as well as transportation electrification progresses, the need for residential energy storage systems is increasing. A high efficiency DC-to-DC converter is usually required to exchange energy generated from renewable sources, such as solar panels, with a battery. The fast-switching speed and low R_DS(on) of gallium nitride (GaN) FETs can help save energy by reducing power consumption inside the DC-to-DC converter. This article shows how to design a high efficiency 100 – 250 V to 40 - 60 V DC-to-DC converter.

Power Electronics Europe
May, 2023
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Automotive electronics have gone through several eras of evolution in the past 30 years. From the pure internal combustion engines (ICE) that had mostly mechanical, or engine-driven systems, to the mild hybrid (MHEV) with the addition of electrical motivation, to the fully battery-electric car (BEV). In each of these three eras, the architecture, and even the basic semiconductor components for converting and distributing electrical power changed. This article discusses this evolution and makes some speculations about likely further evolutionary directions.

Power Systems Design
August, 2023
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In this article, Renesas Electronics explains how using a discreet GaN based power supply in the ISLVERSALDEMO2Z reference design for the core offers several advantages for power management in space avionics systems.

Power Electronics News
July, 2023
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Lower-voltage GaN FETs are reducing size, minimizing cooling requirements and improving efficiency.

Lower-voltage GaN FETs (i.e., 100 V) are reducing size, minimizing cooling requirements and improving efficiency for many traditional Si-based power MOSFET applications. In this article, the challenges to repeatably and reliable characterization of the dynamic performance of these devices is discussed. Careful and thoughtful mechanical and electrical design of a customized GaN fixture and test board can overcome many of these challenges, enabling the confident use of these new WBG devices in your power-converter designs.

Power Electronics News
July, 2023
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Transient voltage overshoot is a common phenomenon in GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) under high slew rate switching conditions. The dynamic parametric instability under such stress is a critical concern for GaN applications. This work, for the first time, accurately characterized the evolution of dynamic on-resistance (R_DS(on)) in GaN HEMTs under repetitive voltage overshoot up to billions of switching cycles. The dynamic R_DS(on) increase was found to be the dominant device degradation under overvoltage switching. Such findings were obtained from a high-frequency, repetitive, unclamped inductive switching (UIS) test with active temperature control and accurate in-situ R_DS(on) monitoring. A physics-based model was proposed to correlate the dynamic R_DS(on) drift with the peak overvoltage, and a good agreement with experimental data was achieved. This model was further used to project the lifetime of GaN HEMTs. For 100 V rated GaN HEMTs switched under 100 kHz and 120 V spikes, the model projects less than 10% dynamic R_DS(on) shift over 25 years of continuous operation. This work addresses the major concerns of overvoltage switching reliability of GaN HEMTs and provides new insights of the electron trapping mechanism.

IEEE Xplore
Ruizhe Zhang, Ricardo Garcia, Robert Strittmatter, Yuhao zhang, Shengke Zhange
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Gallium Nitride (GaN) heterojunction field effect power transistors in the 15 V to 350 V range have shown to give significant advantages over silicon in efficiency, size, speed, and cost in applications such as power conversion, motor drive, and pulsed light for lidar. GaN integration provides numerous system benefits for many high frequency applications. GaN integration is just beginning, and the benefits are assured to increase over time.

Bodo’s Power Systems
June, 2023
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EPC, a leader in enhancement-mode gallium-nitride (GaN) FETs and ICs, delivered multiple technical presentations on GaN technology and showcased applications at PCIM Europe 2023 in Nuremburg. We spoke with the company's Founder and CEO, Alex Lidow, about the power industry and how it's being impacted by GaN devices.

Electronic Design
May, 2023
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In this episode of Spirit: Behind the Screen, Spirit Electronics CEO Marti McCurdy chats with EPC’s CEO Alex Lidow and Marketing Director Renee Yawger about the progress of GaN. They discuss GaN’s performance under high radiation as well as the extensive testing, failure modes and device lifespan detailed in EPC’s Phase 15 reliability report. With the full potential of GaN still to be explored and new EPC products releasing frequently, including new half-bridge drivers, low-side drivers and full power stage, GaN is especially useful in New Space and commercial space applications.

Spirit: Behind the Screen
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Monolithic GaN integration has matured to the point that complex circuits such as a half bridge gate driver with various features can now be realized. This article will cover DC-to-DC and BLDC motor drive application examples that benefit from monolithic half-bridge integration.

Power Electronics News
May, 2023
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Modern solar panels are demanding increasingly higher power density and longer operating lifetimes. Solar applications including power optimizers and panels with built-in microinverters are becoming the prevailing trend for an increasing number of solar customers, where low voltage GaN power devices (V_DS < 200 V) are extensively used.

Bodo’s Power Systems
May, 2023
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Gallium nitride (GaN) transistors and ICs have the best attributes to satisfy BLDC inverter needs. The superior switching capability of GaN helps to remove dead time and increase PWM frequency to obtain unmatched sinusoidal voltage and current waveforms for smoother, silent operation with higher system efficiency

Power Systems Design
May, 2023
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This article discusses the advantages of GaN-based power stages and introduces a sample device from EPC, implemented in a half-bridge topology. It explains how to use associated development kits to quickly get started on a project. In the process, designers will learn how to measure the parameters of a BLDC motor and operate it in sensorless field orientation control (FOC) with minimal programming effort using Microchip Technology’s motorBench Development Suite.

Digi-Key Electronics
April, 2023
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With Electronic Power Steering (EPS), the hydraulic system is replaced with an electric motor that aids the driver only when needed. Its digital assistance control can be modified online to adapt to driving conditions. There are, however, several design constraints to consider. One is that the driver does not want to lack the haptic feedback from the tires, especially when a vehicle is large, such as a truck. Other constraints are determined by safety regulations, particularly for automatic guided vehicles. These constraints require adopting an efficient, accurate and redundant system. Gallium nitride technology helps the designers in all these areas.

Power Electronics News
March, 2023
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Since the launch of GaN-on-Si enhancement mode power transistors in March 2010 there has been a slow but monotonic shift towards adoption and replacement of silicon-based power MOSFETs. Initial adoption came from risk-taker visionaries in applications such as lidar, high-end audio amplifiers, robots, vehicle headlamps, and high-performance DC-DC converters. For the expansion of GaN for power conversion to get beyond the early adopters, a more user-friendly format than the WLCP needed to be developed. This format, however, needed to preserve the key attributes of small size, low RDS(on), high speed, excellent thermal conductivity, and low cost. In other words, the best package would be the least amount of package technically possible. Enter the PQFN…

Bodo’s Power Systems
March, 2023
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With the increase in government mandates to combat climate change, automakers are moving quickly to leverage new technology to respond by switching from the internal combustion engine to electric-drive vehicles. This article presents the design of a 2 kW, two-phase 48 V/12 V bi-directional converter using GaN FETs that achieves 96% efficiency and is targeted for the 48 V mild hybrid system.

PSD North America
March, 2023
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An exploration of a GaN-based design of a 2 kW 48V/12V bi-directional power module for 48 V mild hybrid electric vehicles.

Electronics Today
January, 2023
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Richtek, the global leading analog IC design company has teamed up with EPC, the leading provider of gallium nitride (GaN)-based power management technology to launch a new reference design for fast charging applications, achieving high power density and up to 98% efficiency.

DigiTimes
January, 2023
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Power-conversion technologies are experiencing the first tectonic shift since the move from bipolar to MOS. That shift, of course, is due to the viral adoption of wide-bandgap power devices. At this point, GaN is more than a specialty technology; it is a broad-scale replacement for silicon MOSFETs in applications ranging from 30 V up to 650 V — a multibillion-dollar market.

Power Electronics News
December, 2022
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