News: Microelectronics
7 January 2021
GaN Systems Cup winners announced at China Power Supply Society awards ceremony
At an awards ceremony on 21 December at the China Power Supply Society (CPSS) conference, GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) announced the winners of the sixth annual ‘GaN Systems Cup’ design competition.
The competition challenges top engineering teams from China’s leading universities to design new or improved power electronics systems using GaN power transistors.
This year’s challenge was to design a high-efficiency and high-power-density bidirectional AC/DC converter using GaN Systems’ 650V GS66502B transistor. System technical requirements and parameters included: 400W-rated output power, 220VAC input voltage and 300-400VDC output voltage while achieving 94% efficiency in both directions at full load, no greater than 30W/cm3 power density, closed-loop control, over-current and over-voltage protection function, and run continuously for 30 minutes under natural cooling at 25°C. Designs were judged on meeting the design criteria, functionality during the test day, ingenuity, and quality of presentation.
Thirty-five teams entered the competition and 14 made it into the finals to compete in the final live round. At the ceremony, six engineering teams were awarded for their GaN-based AC/DC converter designs. A 20,000RMB prize was given to the grand-prize winner and 10,000RMB to the two first-prize winners, and 5000RMB to the three second-prize winners:
Grand prize:
- Heilongjiang University of Science & Technology (which presented the best-performance and highest-power-density design for the bidirectional AC/DC converter).
First prize:
- Shanghai Maritime University;
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
Second prize:
- Nanjing University of Science and Technology;
- Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology;
- Beijing Jiaotong University.
The 2020 GaN Systems Cup is sponsored by GaN Systems, CPSS and the organization’s Science Popularization Working Committee of China Power Supply Society, Ningbo Xici Electronic Technology Co Ltd and Itech Electronics Co Ltd and undertaken by Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
GaN Systems sponsoring sixth annual China Power Supply Society ‘GaN Systems Cup’ design competition