News: Microelectronics
20 August 2020
EPC doubles performance of 200V eGaN FET family
Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA – which makes enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) for power management applications – says that it is advancing the performance capability while lowering the cost of off-the-shelf gallium nitride transistors with the introduction of its EPC2215 and EPC2207 200V eGaN FETs. Applications include class D audio, synchronous rectification, solar MPPTs (maximum power point trackers), DC-DC converters (hard-switched and resonant), and multi-level high-voltage converters.
The EPC2215 (8mΩ, 162Apulsed) and the EPC2207 (22mΩ, 54Apulsed) are about half the size of the prior-generation 200V eGaN devices and double the performance. The performance advantage over a benchmark silicon device is hence even higher. The EPC2215 has 33% lower on-resistance, yet is 15 times smaller in size. Gate charge (QG) is ten times smaller than the silicon MOSFET benchmark with the new technology and, like all eGaN FETs, there is no reverse recovery charge (QRR), enabling lower-distortion class D audio amplifiers as well as more efficient synchronous rectifiers and motor drives.
“This latest generation of eGaN FETs achieve higher performance in a smaller, more thermally efficient size, and at a comparable cost to traditional MOSFETs,” says co-founder & CEO Alex Lidow. “The inevitable displacement of the aging power MOSFET with GaN devices is becoming clearer every day.”
EPC worked in collaboration with Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) at University of Texas at Austin to develop a 400V, 2.5kW-capable eGaN FET-based four-level flying capacitor multi-level bridgeless totem-pole rectifier that is suitable for data-center applications using the new EPC2215 200V device. “The advantageous characteristics of eGaN FETs allowed this converter to achieve high power density, ultra-high efficiency, and low harmonic distortion,” comments professor Alex Huang.
The EPC2215 is priced at $2.84 each and the EPC2207 at $1.49 each (in 2.5k reels), with half-bridge development boards EPC9099 and EPC90124, respectively, both priced at $118.75.
