As an example of the contribution to performance GaN devices can make to one of these mainstream applications, a traditional silicon application, the 12 V – 1 V point-of-load (POL) DC/DC converter will be examined. An eGaN IC based 12 V to 1 V, 12 A load converter yielding a peak efficiency of 78% at 5 MHz with a power density of at least 1000 W/in³, all with a cost below $0.20 per watt will be shown

Power Systems Design
January, 2019
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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.

EPC introduces EPC2045 and EPC2047 eGaN^® FETs that are half the size of prior generation eGaN transistors with significantly higher performance.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — March 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN^®) power FETs and ICs advances the performance capability while lowering the cost of off-the-shelf gallium nitride transistors with the introduction of the EPC2045 (7 mΩ, 100 V) and the EPC2047 (10 mΩ, 200 V) eGaN FETs. Applications for the EPC2045 include single stage 48 V to load Open Rack server architectures, point-of-load converters, USB-C, and LiDAR. Wireless charging, multi-level AC-DC power supplies, robotics, and solar micro inverters are example applications for the 200 V EPC2047.

Emerging applications such as 48V-to-point-of-load (POL), wireless power and USB Type-C had a lot of interest. Google joined the Open Compute Project a few weeks ago and proposed a computer server-rack architecture based on a 48V power-distribution bus to improve overall system efficiency. While the 48V bus has been around for a long time, the push (and challenge) is for high-efficiency 48V-to-POL voltage regulators. EPC showcased TI’s 48V-to-1V EVM which uses the LMG5200 GaN module (driver and FETs), announced at APEC last year, and a new TI analog controller (TPS53632G).

TI E2E Community
Pradeep Shenoy
Mar 28, 2016
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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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eGaN FETs differ from silicon MOSFETs in part because of their significantly faster switching speeds. In the second article of this series, we explore the different requirements for gate drive, layout, and thermal management.

By Johan Strydom PHD, Director of Application Engineering, EPC
Power Electronics Technology
January 1, 2011

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The intermediate bus architecture (IBA) is currently the most popular power system architecture in computing and telecommunications equipment. It typically consists of a +48 V system power distribution bus that feeds on-board bus converters, which in turn supply power to nonisolated, dc-dc converters. These nonisolated converters generate the low supply voltages required to power the various logic circuits. Because of their proximity to the circuits they power, these converters are commonly referred to as point-of-load converters (POLs).

By Johan Strydom, EPC, El Segundo, Calif. and Bob White, Embedded Power Labs, Highlands Ranch, Colo.
How2Power
November, 2010

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