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GaN HEMT Package Improves Paralleling Of Devices In Space Power Applications

GaN HEMT Package Improves Paralleling Of Devices In Space Power Applications

As more processing power and more complex loads are placed on-orbit or into deep space missions, it is sometime necessary to parallel two or more power switches. However, conventional power device packages, such as the FSMD-A/B/C/D and their I/O pad provisioning make it difficult to accomplish paralleling these devices in a performance-conscious manner. When paralleled, the gate and source-sense pads on these packages either serve to block the most efficient/shortest interconnect from package-to-package for the drain and source connections or for the gate and source-sense pads. So in parallel configurations, there is always a compromise between optimized drain-source load-circuit performance and gate-source-sense drive-loop performance. This article introduces the FSMD-G discrete HEMT package and explains how the reconfiguration of its I/O pads overcomes these limitations when paralleling GaN HEMTs.

How2Power
September, 2023
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Power Packaging for the GaN Generation of Power Conversion

Power Packaging for the GaN Generation of Power Conversion

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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Where is GaN Headed in 2022?

Where is GaN Headed in 2022?

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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Silicon is Dead

Silicon is Dead

EPC CEO & Co-Founder, Alex Lidow delivers a presentation entitled, Silicon is Dead in the Ridley Engineering booth at APEC 2019.

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It's Time to Rethink Power Semiconductor Packaging

It's Time to Rethink Power Semiconductor Packaging

When the issue invariably turns to the packaging of the power semiconductor – transistor, diode, or integrated circuit – the requests for improvement fall into six categories:

1. Can you make the package smaller?
2. Can you reduce the package inductance?
3. Can you make the product with lower conduction losses?
4. Can you make the package more thermally efficient?
5. Can you sell the product at a lower price?
6. Can you make the package more reliable?

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Improving Thermal Performance with Chip-Scale Packaged Gallium Nitride Transistors

Improving Thermal Performance with Chip-Scale Packaged Gallium Nitride Transistors

With power converters demanding higher power density, transistors must be accommodated in an ever decreasing board space. Beyond gallium nitride based power transistors’ ability to improve electrical efficiency, they must also be more thermally efficient. This article evaluates the thermal performance of chip-scale packaged eGaN® FETs and compares their in-circuit electrical and thermal performance with state-of-the-art silicon MOSFETs.

Bodo’s Power Systems
David Reusch, Ph.D. and Alex Lidow, Ph.D.
June 1, 2016
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Package Considerations for High Frequency Power Conversion Devices

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

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Delivering Efficient Power Conversion with Package-Free HEMTs

Packaging has its downsides: It increases the footprint and the price of a power MOSFET, while degrading its performance through unwanted increases in resistance and inductance. The best solution is to ditch the package, a step that allows GaN HEMTs to be cost-competitive with silicon incumbents, argues Alex Lidow from Efficient Power Conversion Corporation.

Compound Semiconductor
June, 2013

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