Gallium Nitride ICs: Increasing server power efficiencies - Reducing waste power, cooling, and space aren't just data-center-size concerns; they're also battles fought inside the confines of each rack. And, sometimes, even one small change can make a big difference.

TechBeacon
August 2, 2016
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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.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) introduced a low-side gate driver for use with MOSFETs and Gallium-Nitride (GaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) in high-density power converters. The new LM5114 drives GaN FETs and MOSFETs in low-side applications, such as synchronous rectifiers and power factor converters. Together with the LM5113, the industry's first 100-V half-bridge GaN FET driver announced in 2011, the family provides a complete isolated DC/DC conversion driver solution for high-power GaN FETs and MOSFETs used in high-performance telecom, networking and data center applications. For more information, samples and an evaluation board, visit www.ti.com/gan

EL SEGUNDO, Calif-January 3, 2012 — The National LM5113 from Texas Instruments has been honored with an Electronic Products’ Product of the Year award. The editors of Electronic Products — a leading trade publication for electronic design engineers — evaluated thousands of products launched in 2011. The winning products were selected on the basis of innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application and substantial achievement in price and performance.

The LM5113 is the industry’s first driver designed specifically for enhancement mode gallium nitride FETs. Enhancement-mode GaN FETs enable new levels of efficiency and power density compared to standard metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) due to their low on-resistance (Rdson) and gate charge (Qg) as well as their ultra-small footprint, but driving them reliably presented new challenges. National’s LM5113 driver integrated circuit (IC) overcomes these challenges, enabling power designers to realize the benefits of GaN FETs in a variety of popular power topologies.

"We congratulate Texas Instruments on this prestigious award," said Alex Lidow, co-founder and CEO for Efficient Power Conversion Corporation. "The release of the LM5113 bridge driver has been instrumental in accelerating the adoption of our eGaN® FETs by offering designers a true plug and play solution. The LM5113 bridge driver unlocks the efficiency capability of eGaN FETs, enabling designers to achieve new performance benchmarks in power and system density."

http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Driving_GaN_FETs_becomes_reality-article-poypo_TI_NatSemi_jan2012-html.aspx

We know Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has commercialized enhancement-mode GaN-on-Si FETs, or eGaN FETs as EPC calls them, for more than a year now. Concurrently, it has been working with partners to realize dedicated drivers for its eGaN FETs, which offer lower RDS(ON) at higher voltages, lower gate charge, and no reverse recovery loss (QRR)—all these properties from a smaller die size than silicon. In essence, by comparison to silicon MOSFETs, the eGaN FETs offer a dramatic reduction in figures of merit or FOM.

By Ashok Bindra
How2Power
June, 2011

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GaN (Gallium-Nitride) FETs appear poised to eat into silicon FETs market share as switching devices for high-voltage power conversion circuits.

By Margery Conner
EDN
June 20, 2011

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National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) today introduced the industry’s first 100V half-bridge gate driver optimized for use with enhancement-mode Gallium-Nitride (GaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) in high-voltage power converters. Enhancement-mode GaN FETs enable new levels of efficiency and power density compared to standard metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) due to their low on-resistance (Rdson) and gate charge (Qg) as well as their ultra-small footprint, but driving them reliably presents significant new challenges. National’s LM5113 driver integrated circuit (IC) eliminates these challenges, enabling power designers to realize the benefits of GaN FETs in a variety of popular power topologies.

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