EPC9010 development board features dedicated eGaN driver to facilitate rapid design of high frequency switching power conversion systems using the 100 V EPC2016 eGaN FET

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— February, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces the EPC9010 development board to make it easier for engineers to start designing with a 100 V enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET) in applications such as high-speed DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, hard-switched and high frequency circuits.

The EPC9010 development board is a 100 V maximum device voltage, 7 A maximum output current, half bridge with onboard gate drives, featuring the EPC2016 enhancement mode (eGaN) field effect transistor (FET). The purpose of this development board is to simplify the evaluation process of eGaN FETs by including all the critical components on a single board that can be easily connected into any existing converter.

Designers of point of load (POL) converters used in 24 VDC systems traditionally have had to decide between the high cost of an isolated converter and the low frequency and efficiency of a buck converter. When compared with the 12 V POL converter common in computing systems, the higher voltage of the 24 V POL converter increases FET voltage to at least 40 volts to accommodate switch-node ringing and increases commutation and C_OSS losses. eGaN FETs, from EPC, offer ultra-low Q_GD for low commutation losses and low Q_OSS for lower losses when charging and discharging the output capacitance. In addition, the innovative Land Grid Array (LGA), wafer level packaging of EPC’s eGaN FETs allow ultralow inductance in both the high frequency power loop and gate drive loop, and most importantly, the path common to these loops, known as the common source inductance (CSI) to help minimize current commutation losses. Low charge and CSI of eGaN FETs allow designers to push power density higher by pushing frequency higher without the efficiency penalty of traditional MOSFETs.

David Reusch, Ph.D., Director, Applications
Stephen L. Colino, V.P., Sales & Marketing

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The ability of enhancement mode gallium nitride based power devices, such as the eGaN® FET, to achieve higher efficiencies and higher switching frequencies than possible with silicon MOSFETs has been demonstrated for a variety of applications. With improvements in switching figure of merit provided by eGaN FETs, the packaging and PCB layout parasitics are critical to high performance. This first part of this article will study the effect of parasitic inductance on performance for eGaN FET and MOSFET based point of load (POL) buck converters operating at a switching frequency of 1 MHz, an input voltage of 12 V, an output voltage of 1.2 V, and an output current up to 20 A.

By David Reusch, Ph.D., Director, Applications, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation

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The race to commercialize Gan-on-Si technology for power conversion applications continues at an intensified pace. As of December 2012 more than twenty semiconductor vendors have participate in this race led by a group of about seven vendors.

www.bodospower.com

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EPC9004 features eGaN^® FETs in combination with dedicated GaN FET gate driver from Texas Instruments

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—February 2013 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announced the availability of the EPC9004 development board, featuring EPC’s enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistors (FETs). This board demonstrates how recently introduced IC gate drivers, optimized for GaN FETs, make the task of transitioning from silicon power transistors to higher performance eGaN FETs simple and cost effective.

The EPC9004 development board is a 200 V peak voltage, 2 A maximum output current, half bridge featuring the EPC2012 eGaN FET. The EPC2012 is used in combination with the UCC27611 high-speed gate driver from Texas Instruments, thus reducing time and complexity for designing high frequency, high performance power systems.

Initial shoot-out articles showed that eGaN^® FETs behave similarly to silicon devices and can be evaluated using the same performance metrics. Although eGaN FETs perform significantly better by most metrics, the eGaN FET ‘body-diode’ forward voltage is higher than its MOSFET counterpart and can be a significant loss component during dead-time. Body diode forward conduction losses alone do not make up all dead-time dependent losses. Diode reverse-recovery and output capacitance losses are also important. In this article, we discuss dead-time management and the need to minimize all dead-time losses.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC Power Electronics Technology

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Wireless charging will be a fast-growing segment of the power electronics industry in 2013. Significant developments began accelerating last year. The “Top 10” developments selected by the PowerPulse editors highlight important trends in wireless charging that will continue in 2013 and beyond.

EPC announced a high efficiency wireless power demonstration system utilizing the high frequency switching capability of gallium nitride transistors. eGaN® FETs from EPC are well suited for these systems because of their ability to operate efficiently at high frequency, voltage, and power. This wireless power demonstration system jointly developed by EPC and WiTricity is a class-D power system operating at 6.78 MHz, and capable of delivering up to 15 W to a load. The purpose of this demonstration system is to simplify the evaluation process of the wireless power technology. The system includes all the critical components in a single system that can be easily connected to demonstrate the powering of a device with wireless energy transfer.

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January 2, 2013

Within the power electronics industry, GaN technology is growing out of its niche. The first GaN transistors are winning a growing share of the power electronics market. By Steve Soffels, Denis Marcon, and Stefaan Decoutere, IMEC www.bodospower.com

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January 2, 2013

In this article we show that enhancement mode GaN transistors enable significant efficiency improvements in resonant topologies and demonstrate a practical example of a wireless power transmission system operating in the 6.78 MHz range.

By Alex Lidow PhD, CEO; Michael deRooij PhD, Executive Director of Application Engineering; David Reusch PhD, Director of Application Engineering, EPC Bodo’s Power Systems (www.bodospower.com)

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Although, for the last few years, there has been a lot of talk about gallium nitride(GaN) based power transistors displacing the entrenched silicon MOSFETs, it might take some time before the emerging gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) based power FETs enter the mainstream power conversion space. However, in the meantime, a handful of emerging applications are poised to tap the benefits of this promising power technology. Besides commercial availability with high reliability, there are a number of unique GaN characteristics that are fostering these new applications.

Ashok Bindra
How2Power Today
December, 2012

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By: Sun Changhua
www.digitimes.com.tw
December 20, 2012

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The nPower^® PEG is the world's first human-powered charger for hand-held electronics. The product from Tremont Electric uses eGaN® FETs from Efficient Power Conversion Corp. in their nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator).

http://www.powerpulse.net/story.php?storyID=26832

Written by industry experts, “GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion” provides both theory and applications for gallium nitride transistors

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – November 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces the publication of a Simplified Chinese edition of its gallium nitride transistor textbook, “GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion”. This textbook provides power system design engineers basic technical and application-focused information on how to design more efficient power conversion systems using gallium nitride-based transistors.

SEGUNDO, Calif. – November, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces that it has been recognized with a Leading Product Award by EDN China Innovation Award 2012 in its Power Device and Module category. In its eighth year, the EDN China Innovation Award 2012 is the benchmark event for recognizing product innovation by the voting of electronics design engineers and managers worldwide.

“It is an honor to receive this recognition as an industry leading product from EDN China magazine. The EPC2012 is one member of our family of eGaN FETs being adopted by customers as higher performance replacements for silicon-based MOSFETs,” noted Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation.

Tech writer Ashok Bindra discusses the latest advances in silicon carbide, gallium nitride, and silicon devices for power electronics applications in a new monthly column sponsored by Cree, Inc. and Efficient Power Conversion Corp.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/10/prweb10039506.htm

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – October, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, (www.epc-co.com) the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride FET technology, announces today that it has been recognized with inclusion in the EE Times Silicon 60 list of 60 Emerging Startups. Companies are selected by the editorial team at EE Times based on a mix of criteria including: technology, intended market, maturity, financial position, investment profile, and executive leadership.

“It is an honor to receive this recognition from EE Times as one of the hottest emerging electronics companies and as EE Times has noted, ‘an emerging company worthy of tracking,’” commented Alex Lidow, CEO, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation.

So far in this series, significant efforts have been made to show the performance improvements that can be achieved with eGaN® FETs over silicon MOSFETS in both hard and soft switching applications. In every case, eGaN FETs showed improvement over MOSFETs. In this volume of the eGaN FET-Silicon power shoot-out series, the die size optimization process is discussed and an example application is used to show specific results.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC
Power Electronics Technology

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Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) Market Leading eGaN^® FET Receives Top 10 Power Products Award from Electronic Products China

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – September, 2012 - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) announces that its EPC9102 has been recognized by Electronic Products China with a Top 10 Power Products Award – Technology Breakthrough Award.

In this article, we show that high electron densities and very low temperature coefficients give the eGaN FET major advantages over the power MOSFET needed for today’s high performance applications. High electron density yields superior RDS(ON), while positive temperature coefficients inhibit hot spot generation within the die, resulting in superior Safe Operating Area capabilities.

By Yanping Ma, Ph.D., Director of Quality, EPC
Bodo's Power Systems

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