EPC claims lowest on-resistance GaN FET

Efficient Power Conversion Corp. (EPC) has launched the 100-V, 1-mΩ EPC2361 GaN FET at APEC 2024. Claimed as the lowest on-resistance GaN FET on the market, it offers double the power density compared to EPC’s prior-generation products.

The EPC2361 GaN power transistor has a typical R_DS(on) of 1-mΩ in a thermally enhanced 3 × 5-mm QFN package. The maximum R_DS(on) × area of the device is 15 mΩ mm², which is more than five times smaller than comparable 100-V silicon MOSFETs, according to EPC.

(Source: EPC)

With its ultra-low on-resistance, the EPC2361 enables higher power density and efficiency in power conversion systems, resulting in lower energy consumption and heat dissipation. The ultra-low on-resistance is particularly significant for applications such as high-power PSU AC/DC synchronous rectification, high frequency DC/DC conversion for data centers, motor drives for eMobility, robotics, drones and solar MPPTs.

The EPC2361 is priced at $4.60 each in quantities of 3,000. EPC also offers the EPC90156 100-V, 65-A half-bridge 2 × 2-inch (50.8 × 50.8 mm) development board, featuring the EPC2361 GaN FET and all critical components.  The dev board is priced at $200. The devices are available directly at the EPC website or through any one of EPC’s distribution partners. EPC also offers its GaN Power Bench cross-reference tool to help designers replace their silicon MOSFETs with a GaN solution.

EPC also recently introduced several reference designs that feature its GaN FETs and Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) controllers to help simplify GaN design. These include EPC’s EPC9158, EPC9160 and EPC9195 demo boards and the ADI GaN-based evaluation boards, EVAL-LTC7890-AZ, EVAL-LTC7891-AZ, EVAL-LT8418-BZ and EVAL-LT8390A-AZ that feature EPC’s GaN FETs.

The EPC9195 synchronous buck converter reference design board, operating at 750-kHz switching frequency, converts an input voltage of 36 V – 48 V to a regulated 13.5-V output. EPC said this type of high-density DC/DC converter is used to convert the 48-VDC input from batteries or chargers to a regulated typical 12-V load. It delivers up to 16 A in a small 28 × 14-mm footprint. The combination of ADI’s new LTC7891 100-V synchronous GaN buck controller with ultra-efficient EPC2619 GaN FETs helps enable a small and highly efficient solution with 96.4% efficiency at 48 V to 13.5 V and 16 A continuous current.

The EPC9158 is a dual-output synchronous buck converter reference design board. Operating at 500-kHz switching frequency, it converts an input voltage of 48 V to 54 V to a regulated 12-V output and delivers up to 25 A per phase or 50-A total continuous current. The combination of ADI’s new LTC7890 100-V dual, 2-phase synchronous buck controller for driving GaN with ultra-efficient EPC2218/EPC2088 GaN FETs achieves 96.5% efficiency at 48 V to 12 V and 50-A continuous current.

The EPC9160 is a dual-output synchronous buck converter reference design board that operates at 2-MHz switching frequency per phase. This board converts an input voltage of 9 V to 24 V to a 3.3-V or 5-V output voltage and delivers up to 15-A continuous current for both outputs. The high switching frequency with the small solution size of 23 × 22 mm and the inductor height of 3 mm in combination with the LTC7890 makes this solution suitable  for automotive console applications, where 2-MHz switching frequency is preferred, EPC said. Other applications include computing, industrial, consumer, and telecom power systems.

EPC is displaying its GaN technology, products and applications at APEC 2024, booth #1045. The company will also host several presentations.