GaN Talk Blog

Minimal invasive surgery using surgical robots gives unprecedented control to surgeons looking to achieve the next level of precision, thereby reducing risk and trauma to the patient and speeding recovery. Many motors are required to control the various robotic appendages, such as arms, joints, and tool control, that give the surgical robot the required degrees of freedom (DOF) and dexterity to perform extremely delicate tasks. Weight and size of motor control circuitry are thus important factors in the design of such robots as they directly impact the size of the motor that manipulates the robot’s appendages during surgery.

The motor of choice for robotic surgery is the 3-phase brushless DC (BLDC) motor These motors are compact for their power rating, can be precisely controlled, offer high electro-mechanical efficiency, and can operate with minimal vibration when properly controlled. The choice of motor voltage lies in the range of 24 V to 48 V with balancing power conductor thickness and weight with insulation thickness and stiffness for optimum performance and dexterity being the determining factors.

Enhancement-mode GaN power devices, (eGaN^® FETs and ICs) provide the path for users to differentiate their end products. This new technology gives significantly higher efficiencies in the ever-present power supply and delivery circuits that fuel our gadgets and electronic equipment.

As the sales manager for the Americas, I am in the enviable position of working with customers to create a new vision of excellence so they continue to lead in their market space and contribute optimizing power consumption by reducing energy consumption.

Power systems designs introducing new technologies and approaches is always met with curiosity and evaluation. Customers always ask the most fundamental and far-reaching questions about the attributes and implementation of new technologies. Therefore, I thought documenting the most common questions I have received will help others considering the use of GaN technology pave the way to their confident adoption of this transitional technology.

Ask EPC's chief executive, Alex Lidow, what the future holds for his GaN power device business, and automotive certification features prominently.

Recently delivering AEC Q101-qualified 80 V discrete transistors for LiDAR, 48V power distribution systems and other applications, the company's latest enhancement-mode FETs deliver higher switching frequencies and efficiencies than silicon MOSFETs, in a smaller footprint. And this is just the beginning.

"We have more transistors as well as integrated circuits designed for LiDAR [sensors] and are proceeding with automotive certification here," highlights Lidow. "LiDAR is under intense cost and performance pressure so integrating components and improving performance while lowering the cost is a big deal."

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a better semiconductor than silicon. There are many crystals that are better than silicon, but the problem has always been that they are far too expensive to be used in every application where silicon is used. But, GaN can be grown as an inexpensive thin layer on top of a standard silicon wafer enabling devices that are faster, smaller, more efficient, and less costly than their aging silicon counterparts.

This post was originally published on TI’s TI E2E Community “Power House” Blog. Learn more about eGaN technology here and EPC GaN solutions here.

In January of 2016 I made several predictions for the then-nascent year. Predictions were made for new markets such as wireless charging, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, and advances in medical diagnostics and internet access. Progress in these markets was made on all fronts, sometimes faster and sometimes slower than anticipated. So here we are about to start a new year and, perhaps foolishly I am ready once again to predict the future.

Class-D audio amplifiers have traditionally been looked down upon by audiophiles, and in most cases, understandably so. Switching transistors for Class-D amplifiers have never had the right combination of performance parameters to produce an amplifier with sufficient open-loop linearity to satisfy the most critical listeners. This restricted the classical analog modulator Class-D systems to lower-power, lower-quality sound systems.

To accomplish the required headline marketing THD+N performance targets, Class-D amplifiers have had to resort to using large amounts of feedback to compensate for their poor open-loop performance. By definition, large amounts of feedback introduce transient intermodulation distortion (TIM), which introduces a ‘harshness’ that hides the warm subtleties and color of the music that were intended for the listening experience.

In past postings , we looked at the applications that have emerged because of new capabilities available with #GaN technology. We also discussed the transformational nature of some of these applications in areas like medicine, telecommunications,human-machine interfaces, and the delivery of electrical power itself (wireless power transfer). GaN technology is entering an era similar to the 80’s and 90’s when the utility of technological improvement was apparent across broad commercial markets. Consequentially, consumers will be willing to pay a premium for the life-style improvements enabled by these improvements thereby accelerating growth of GaN applications for the foreseeable future.