Enhancement-mode GaN aims at the future, now

Enhancement-mode GaN aims at the future, now

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) is the first company to introduce enhancement-mode gallium-nitride-on-silicon transistors (eGaN) for applications in servers, netbooks, notebooks, cell phones, base stations, flat-panel displays, and Class D audio amplifiers. When it was introduced at the Darnell Power Forum it immediately caused a buzz among the conference attendees because it was the first to provide a normally off (enhancement mode), as opposed to a normally on (depletion mode) device. The EPC1001 eGaN, winner of the Product of the Year, was explicitly developed to replace power MOSFETs. It delivers device performance many times greater than the best silicon power MOSFETs. It features 100V drain-to-source, 25A continuous, 100A pulsed, 6V gate-to-source and 5.6-mΩ typical RDS(on) .

The power transistor helps produce devices that are smaller than similar resistance silicon devices and has superior switching performance. Applications that benefit from this newly available performance are dc/dc power conversion, PoL converters, Class D audio amplifiers, notebook and netbook computers, LED drive circuits, telecom base stations, and cell phones.

This is a disruptive technology due to an order-of-magnitude improvement in on-resistance for a given device area, which is a primary figure of merit for such a device. It also provides a 10x speed improvement to help minimize switching losses. However, just because this shows significant advancements, it doesn’t mean the industry will accept it. There are four key questions that must be answered, according to Alex Lidow CEO of EPC, before any new technology can be considered ready for prime time:

• Does it enable a new capability?

• Is it cost effective?

• Is it reliable?

• Is it easy to use?

EPC believes that this product answers correctly all those questions.

The products are produced in a standard silicon CMOS foundry on 150mm silicon wafers. The use of this low-cost infrastructure has allowed EPC to price the initial product offerings aggressively in order to accelerate the conversion from silicon power MOSFETs. Results from reliability testing on the eGaN power devices as well as application notes, Spice models, demo boards, and development kits can be found at www.epc-co.com. The GaN device needs no package and that reduces thermal resistance, electrical resistance, and cost. Third-order Spice models are available for the GaN-based switching devices, along with reference designs and application notes.

Paul O’Shea