Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) expands AEC Q101 product family with the addition of the EPC2219, 65 V gallium nitride transistor with integrated reverse gate clamp diode optimized for high resolution lidar systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— March 2021 — EPC announces successful AEC Q101 qualification of the 65 V EPC2219 designed for lidar systems in the automotive industry and other harsh environments. 

Gallium nitride(GaN)-on-silicon low voltage power devices have enabled many new applications since commercial availability began in 2010. New markets, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), envelope tracking, and wireless power, emerged due to the superior switching speed of GaN. These new applications have helped develop a strong supply chain, low production costs, and an enviable reliability record. All of this provides adequate incentive for the more conservative design engineers in applications, such as dc–dc converters, ac–dc converters, and automotive to start their evaluation process. In this series, a few of the many, high volume applications taking advantage of GaN to achieve new levels of end-product differentiation will be discussed. First, it is useful to explore the factors attributing to the rapid acceleration of the adoption rate.

Power Systems Design
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EPC2049 GaN power transistor offers power systems designers a 40 V, 5 mΩ power transistor about 8 times smaller than equivalently rated silicon MOSFETs for point of load converters, LiDAR, and low inductance motor drive.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — December 2017 — EPC announces the EPC2049 power transistor for use in applications including point of load converters, LiDAR, envelope tracking power supplies, class-D audio, and low inductance motor drives. The EPC2049 has a voltage rating of 40 V and maximum R_DS(on) of 5 mΩ with a 175 A pulsed output current.

Produced by industry experts, Efficient Power Conversion has posted six videos showing active end-use applications such as a wireless power tabletop, high performance LiDAR, single-stage 48 V – 1.8 V DC-DC conversion, and precision motor drive control using gallium nitride transistors and integrated circuits.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – April 2017 – Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (www.epc-co.com) has created and posted to its website six short videos presenting end-customer applications using eGaN^® FETs and ICs. These videos show how GaN technology is changing the way we live and challenging power systems design engineers to incorporate the high performance of gallium nitride FETs and ICs into their next generation power system designs.

Adding to its breadth of applications research and support for EPC customer evaluation and use of GaN^® FETs and ICs, the company announces the opening of an applications center and the appointment of Suvankar Biswas, Ph.D. as senior applications engineer.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— January 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce the opening of an Applications Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.  This center will increase the reach of EPC to support research and development for the applications of enhancement-mode gallium nitride transistors and ICs.  In addition to traditional FET and IC power conversion applications, GaN technology has enabled emerging applications such as wireless power transfer, LiDAR for autonomous vehicles, and envelope tracking for high bandwidth 4G and 5G communications.

Alex Lidow talks about advanced envelope tracking for power management. The ability of an amplifying system to follow the signal and only output the power needed to express it can save significant amounts of energy and improve performance.

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This article presents an envelope tracking power supply using EPC8004 high frequency eGaN^® FETs for 4G LTE wireless base station infrastructure. An ET power supply with four-phase soft-switching buck converter using eGaN FETs is able to accurately track a 20 MHz 7 db PAPR LTE envelope signal with greater than 92% total efficiency, delivering 60 W average power. The design is scalable to satisfy different power levels by choosing different eGaN FETs.

Bodo’s Power Systems
Yuanzhe Zhang, Ph.D., Michael de Rooij, Ph.D.
March, 2016
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Dr. Zhang will be creating benchmark envelope tracking designs and assisting customers in the use of eGaN^® FETs for high frequency, high- performance power conversion systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—January 2016 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce that Dr. Yuanzhe Zhang has joined the EPC engineering team as Director, Applications Engineering.

Alex Lidow of EPC shows the latest GaN-enabled wireless power tech at APEC 2015.

Power Systems Design
March 19, 2015
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On September 3^rd IEEE PELS will offer a webinar by Dr. Johan Strydom discussing the contribution of gallium nitride power transistors to meet the demanding system bandwidth requirements of envelope tracking applications.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— August 2014 — An Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) expert on the application of gallium nitride transistors in envelope tracking power circuit design will conduct a one-hour webinar sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) on September 3^rd from 11:00 AM to 12:00 AM (EDT).

At the IEEE APEC 2014 power electronics industry conference, EPC applications experts will make technical presentations on GaN FET technology and applications showing the superiority of GaN transistors compared to silicon power MOSFETs.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — February, 2014 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN®) power FETs will be presenting three application-focused technical presentations at APEC 2014. Participants will learn about high frequency resonant converter, and high-frequency, hard-switched power converter design. The conference will be held in Fort Worth, Texas from March 16th through the 20th.

EPC8010 100 V gallium nitride FET is optimized for high frequency applications with positive gain into the 3 GHz range.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – January 2014 – Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN^®) power FETs extends its family of high-speed, high performance transistors with the EPC8010 power transistor. Sold in die form, the EPC8010 is a mere 1.75 mm² with 100 V_DS. Optimized for high speed switching, the EPC8010 has a maximum R_DS(on) of 160 milliohms and input gate charge in the hundreds of pico-coulombs.

Enhancement-mode gallium nitride transistors have been commercially available for over four years and have infiltrated many applications previously monopolized by the aging silicon power MOSFET. There are many benefits derived from the latest generation eGaN® FETs in new emerging applications such as highly resonant wireless power transfer, RF envelope tracking, and class-D audio. This article will examine the rapidly evolving trend of conversion from power MOSFETs to gallium nitride transistors in these new applications.

Power Pulse
By: Alex Lidow
February, 2014

With the introduction of this family of eGaN® FETs, power systems and RF designers now have access to high performance gallium nitride power transistors enabling innovative designs not achievable with silicon.

October, 2013
Bodo's Power Systems

Envelope tracking (ET) for radio frequency (RF) amplifiers is not new. But with the ever increasing need for improved cell phone battery life, better base station energy efficiency, and more output power from very costly RF transmitters, the need for improving the RF Power Amplifier (PA) system efficiency through ET has become an intense topic of research and development.

We demonstrate what power and efficiency levels are readily realizable using eGaN FETs in a buck converter for high power envelope tracking applications.

By Johan Strydom, Ph.D., Vice President of Applications, EPC Power Electronics Technology

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