Acknowledgement - This application note and associated hardware was developed in collaboration with Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) at University of Texas at Austin.

Motivation

The expansion of applications such as cloud computing, wearables, machine learning, autonomous driving, and IoT drive us towards an even more data-intensive world, increasing demands on data centers and power consumption [1, 2]. The importance of efficiency, power density, and cost of the AC to DC switching power supply is driving innovative solutions that eGaN FETs can solve to yield ultra-high efficiency power factor correction (PFC) front-end rectifier solutions that are the focus of this how-to-application note.

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."

Did you see that car? The one with what looks like antlers on the top? Most people would be hard-pressed to miss a self-driving car navigating about public roads. Most autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars as they are also known, are outfitted with a myriad of sensors, cameras, and even lasers that serve a critical function – providing information about the vehicle’s surroundings. These sensors and cameras are one means of identifying pedestrians, bicycle riders, lane lines, street signs, lights, traffic cones, and other visual details that are important for safe driving.

This post was originally published on Velodyne LiDAR’s “360” Blog. Learn more about eGaN technology here and EPC GaN solutions for LiDAR here.

Have you ever been driving at night—perhaps on a twisty two-lane highway—when the headlights of an oncoming car seemingly “crash” into your retinas? Blue-tinged LED beams leap out from behind a curve, or crest over a hillside, and for an instant it feels like you may have gone blind. Your vision erupts with a painful jolt of white. You squint through patchy discolorations trying to locate the lane lines. A quick flip of your high beams results in an even brighter display from the oncoming car. And now there are two drivers swerving past one another who couldn’t read the top line at the eye doctor.

As nighttime images of the earth from the International Space Station confirm, ours is an increasingly illuminated world. And LEDs, or light emitting diodes, supply a cheap and efficient means for broad illumination, not just for vehicles but increasingly for street lighting. Yet some types of LEDs have recently raised concerns of associated health risks.

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 written by EDN senior technical editor, Steve Taranovich for the Power-management Design Center , How To Article section on APEC 2017. Originally published on April 03, 2017.”

Prognosticators do not often risk their reputations by giving their predictions a “checkup” midway through the period of their predictions. But, I am going to give it a shot and here we go…

Every year in January 2017, the world’s consumer electronics community gathers in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to see, learn and discuss the latest innovations and products available in the world of electronics.

More than 3,800 exhibitors spread out across 2.47 million net square feet of exhibit space, is the location where over 170,000 industry professionals, 50,000 outside of the U.S. wander, ogle, and “play with” the latest electronic devices.

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.

GaN technology is disruptive, in the best sense of the word, making possible what was once thought to be impossible – eGaN® technology is 10 times faster, significantly smaller, and with higher performance at costs comparable to silicon-based MOSFETs. The inevitability of GaN displacing the aging power MOSFET is becoming clearer with domination of most existing applications and enabling new ones.