EPC announces upgrade of development boards featuring eGaN FETs using dedicated GaN FET gate drivers from Texa

EPC announces upgrade of development boards featuring eGaN FETs using dedicated GaN FET gate drivers from Texas Instruments

EPC9003 and EPC9006 demonstrate the ease of designing with eGaN FETs with ready-made, easy to connect development boards and well-documented engineering support materials.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—October, 2012 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of two development boards, the EPC9003 and the EPC9006, both featuring EPC’s enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistors (FETs). These boards demonstrate how the recent introductions of IC gate drivers, optimized for eGaN FETs, make the task of transitioning from silicon to eGaN technology simple and cost effective.

The EPC9003 development board is a half bridge configuration containing two 200 V EPC2010 eGaN FETs with a 5 A maximum output current using the low-side gate driver optimized for GaN devices, the LM5114 from Texas Instruments. The EPC2010 is designed for use in applications such as solar microinverters, class D audio amplifiers, Power over Ethernet (PoE), and synchronous rectification.

Additionally, EPC announces the availability of the EPC9006 development board containing two 100 V EPC2007 eGaN FETs with 5 A maximum output current, This board uses the LM5113 from Texas Instruments, a 100 V half bridge driver optimized for GaN transistors. The LM5113 used on this board is packaged in a 2×2 BGA package allowing for a very compact power stage with the driver and two eGaN FETs. Applications benefiting from the performance of the EPC2007 eGaN FET include high-speed DC-DC power supplies, point-of-load converters, class D audio amplifiers, hard-switched and high frequency circuits.

Both the EPC9003 and the EPC9006 are intended to simplify the evaluation process of eGaN FETs by including all the critical components on single 2 x 1.5-in. boards that can be easily connected into any existing converter. In addition, there are various probe points on the boards to facilitate simple waveform measurement and efficiency calculation. Quick Start Guides are included with both development boards for reference and ease of use.

EPC9003 and EPC9006 development boards are priced at $95.00 each. These development boards, like all EPC products, are available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key at http://digikey.com/Suppliers/us/Efficient-Power-Conversion.page?lang=en

Design information and support for eGaN FETs:

Quick Start Guides:http://epc-co.com/epc/documents/guides/EPC9003_qsg.pdfhttp://epc-co.com/epc/documents/guides/EPC9006_qsg.pdfDownload EPC2007/EPC2010 and all EPC eGaN datasheets at http://epc-co.com/epc/Products.aspxDevelopment boards and other design support available at http://epc-co.com/epc/ToolsandDesignSupport/DemoBoards.aspxView eGaN product training support materials at http://epc-co.com/epc/ToolsandDesignSupport/ProductTraining/eGaNtradeFETBasics.aspxApplication notes for eGaN FETs can be found at http://epc-co.com/epc/ToolsandDesignSupport/ProductTraining/ApplicationofeGaNtradeFETs.aspx

About EPC

EPC is the leader in enhancement mode gallium nitride based power management devices. EPC was the first to introduce enhancement-mode gallium-nitride-on-silicon (eGaN) FETs as power MOSFET replacements in applications such as servers, wireless power transmission, envelope tracking, RF transmission, power-over-ethernet (PoE), solar micro inverters, energy efficient lighting, and class-D audio amplifiers with device performance many times greater than the best silicon power MOSFETs. Visit our web site: www.epc-co.com.

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