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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Growing computational power and miniaturization of electronics in computing and data centers is increasingly putting pressure on 48-V power delivery and conversion systems. High-efficiency and high-power–density converters enable a reduction in power losses at the system level while allowing smaller form factors. In this context, LLC resonant topologies combined with GaN technology succeed to deliver outstanding performance, as it has been demonstrated with multiple examples. This article will show the key design parameters and components to achieve beyond 4 kW/in3 of power density in a 48-V to 12-V LLC converter using eGaN^® FETs.

Power Electronics News
December, 2022
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Gallium nitride devices are leading the innovation in power conversion. The benefits of GaN-based inverters are becoming increasingly evident in motor drive applications.

Power Electronics News
October, 2022
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Easy Engineering interviewed EPC’s Director of Marketing, Renee Yawger, on the current state of GaN adoption and the future of GaN technology.

Easy Engineering
May, 2022
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Video Interview - Efficient Power Conversion’s CEO, Alex Lidow, talks with Electronic Design about the future of gallium nitride (GaN), the rate of GaN adoption and its use in power supplies and other technologies.

Electronic Design
March, 2022
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In this article, the author introduces a GaN FET compatible analog controller that yields a low bill-of-material count and give designers the ability to design a synchronous buck converter in the same simple way as using silicon FETs, and offers superior performance for 48 V power systems.

Power Electronics News
April, 2021
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Gallium nitride (GaN) power devices have been in production for over 10 years and, beyond just performance and cost improvements, the most significant opportunity for GaN technology to impact the power conversion market comes from the intrinsic ability to integrate multiple devices on the same substrate. This capability will allow monolithic power systems to be designed on a single chip in a more straightforward, higher efficiency, and more cost-effective way.

Power Electronic News
March, 2021
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Gallium nitride (GaN) devices offer performance in a small form factor, increasing the efficiency, and reducing the system cost for 48 V power conversion applications. They have been adopted in high volumes in high density computing, as well as many new automotive power system designs.

Electronic Specifier
February, 2021
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Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC), the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN^®) power FETs and ICs, has won the Contributor of the Year award of the prestigious World Electronics Achievement Awards (WEAA) 2020 for Dr. Alex Lidow, CEO and co-founder of Efficient Power Conversion.

The WEAA scheme honors products, companies and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to the innovation and development of the electronics industry worldwide. A committee comprising of ASPENCORE global senior industry analysts and online users from Asia, the US and Europe select the winners. ASPENCORE is the largest electronics industry media and SaaS group in the world featuring media titles including EE Times and EDN.

GaN technology has seen significant improvements and has reached an optimal cost for MOSFET replacement. Starting in 2017, the adoption rate of GaN in 48-Vin DC-DC converters began to take on important connotations in the market. Various topologies, such as multi-phase and multi-level bucks are offering new solutions with greater efficiency to cover the energy demands of the IT and automotive markets.

Power Electronics News
November, 2020
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Discrete power transistors, whether silicon-based or GaN-on-silicon, are entering their final chapter. GaN-on-Si integrated circuits offer higher performance in a smaller footprint with significantly reduced cost and less engineering required. This article details how the ascent of GaN is redefining power conversion.

Bodo’s Power Systems
October, 2020
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GaN power transistors are an ideal choice for power and RF applications to support extreme space missions. Through its new eGaN^® solutions, EPC Space guarantees radiation hardness performance and SEE (single-event effects) immunity, with devices that are specifically designed for critical applications in commercial satellite space. These devices have exceptionally high electron mobility and a low-temperature coefficient with very low R_DS(on) values.

EETimes
July, 2020
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eGaN FETs and ICs enable very high-density power converter design, owing to their compact size, ultra-fast switching, and low on-resistance. The limiting factor for output power in most high-density converters is junction temperature, which prompts the need for more effective thermal design. The chip-scale packaging of eGaN FETs and ICs offer six-sided cooling, with effective heat extraction from the bottom, top, and sides of the die. This article presents a high-performance thermal solution to extend the output current capability of eGaN-based converters.

EDN
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The EPC2051 offers power systems designers a 100 V, 25 mΩ, power transistor capable of 37 A pulsed in an extremely small chip-scale package.  These new devices are ideal for applications such as 48V power converters, LiDAR, and LED lighting.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — July 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) announces the EPC2051, a 100 V GaN transistor with a maximum R_DS(on) of 25 mΩ and a 37 A pulsed output current for high efficiency power conversion in a tiny 1.1mm² footprint.

Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion, talks to Leo Laporte about Gallium Nitride, and how it is being used to create the next generation of microchips and wirelessly power the world.

This Week in Technology
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EPC2111 GaN half bridge offers power systems designers a solution that increases efficiency for complete overall point-of-load system applications over 85% at 14 A when switching at 5 MHz and over 80% when switching at 10 MHz and converting from 12 V to 1.8 V.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — June2017 — EPC announces the EPC2111, 30 V enhancement-mode monolithic GaN transistor half bridge. By integrating two eGaN^® power FETs into a single device, interconnect inductances and the interstitial space needed on the PCB are eliminated.  This increases both efficiency (especially at higher frequencies) and power density, while reducing assembly costs to the end user’s power conversion system. The EPC2111 is ideal for high frequency 12 V to point-of-load DC-DC conversion.

Improving low-voltage DC/DC converter performance with GaN transistors:
The emergence of commercially available and cost-effective gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors begins a new age in power electronics. There are significant benefits in using enhancement-mode gallium nitride FET (eGaN FET) devices in power converters for existing data center and telecommunications architectures centering around an input voltage of 48 VDC with load voltages as low as 1 VDC. High-performance GaN power transistors can enable new approaches to power data center and telecommunications systems with higher efficiency and higher power density than possible with previous Si MOSFET based architectures.

Power Systems Design
David Reusch, Ph.D., and John Glaser, Ph.D.
January, 25, 2016
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Since the Robotics and Mechatronics Institute is highly interested in the improvement of sensor and power electronics, we used the opportunity of this new robot development to evaluate the new enhancement mode Gallium Nitride FET technology from EPC and compare it with our up to this time best inverter design.

Bodo’s Power Systems
By Robin Gruber, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
March, 2014

Power conversion at switching frequencies of 10 MHz and above requires both high-speed transistors and high frequency capable packaging. eGaN FETs have demonstrated their ability to improve high frequency power conversion compared with the aging power MOSFET by providing unmatched device performance as well as packaging.

Bodo’s Power Systems
Guest Editorial: Alex Lidow
November, 2013