This post was originally published by Dr. John Glaser & Dr. David Reusch on June 13, 2016 on the Power Systems Design web site.
Comparing Dead-time Losses for eGaN FETs and Silicon MOSFETs in Synchronous Rectifiers
There have been several comparisons of eGaN FETs with silicon MOSFETs in a variety of applications, including hard-switched, soft-switched, and high-frequency power conversion. These studies have shown that eGaN FETs have large efficiency and power density advantages over silicon MOSFETs. Here we’ll focus on the use of eGaN FETs in synchronous rectifier (SR) applications and the importance of dead-time management. We show that eGaN FETs can dramatically reduce loss due to dead-time in synchronous rectifiers above and beyond the benefits of low RDS(on)and charge.