雜談GaN技術

eGaN® FET 基於的電力轉換系統比基於 Si 的替代方案具有更高的效率、更高的功率密度和更低的整體系統成本。這些優勢特性促進了越來越多的電力電子元件生態系統的出現，例如門驅動器、控制器和被動元件，專門增強eGaN FET的性能。圖1顯示了一些 eGaN FET 的範例。

There are many reasons to increase frequency of power conversion.  Fundamentally, these reasons boil down to size/weight reduction, and cost reduction.  There are several components in the design of a power system that must perform efficiently at the targeted increased switching frequencies.  These include power switches, power switch drivers, controllers, magnetics, and capacitors. Taken collectively, these components represent the high frequency power conversion ecosystem.  Without any of these elements, the benefits of increased frequency cannot be fully realized.

I don’t know about you, but in my house the number of mobile devices seems to multiply overnight, along with the ways they are used.  On any given night, you may find me on a GoToMeeting conference on my laptop, my husband on a video Skype chat from his phone with his dad in Florida, my oldest son turning in an assignment on Google Classroom from his laptop, my younger son streaming videos on his tablet, and my second grader recording and posting a music.ly on her phablet.  And when we travel, these devices come with us so they need to be small and lightweight enough to come along for ride! 

This all translates into ever-increasing power demands for computing and telecom systems and the conflicting desire for small, lightweight form factors, and extended battery life. To meet these demands, point-of-load (POL) DC-DC converters (the power engines) need to be designed to be small sized and as efficient as possible. These demands translate to ever faster switching frequencies of the transistors used in the power conversion running these devices. Notebook PCs, tablets, and phablets are especially sensitive to this need as our dependency on these devices and the demands we make on them continues to grow.