News: Microelectronics
22 April 2022
Navitas CEO giving plenary talk at CS MANTECH
GaN power integrated circuit firm Navitas Semiconductor of El Segundo, CA, USA and Dublin, Ireland says that CEO & co-founder Gene Sheridan is a plenary speaker at the 36th International Conference on Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (CS MANTECH 2022) in Monterey, CA, USA (9–12 May), which brings together around 450 participants from different sectors of the semiconductor supply chain and comprises technical papers, talks, workshops, ‘fireside chats’ and manufacturer exhibits.
Sheridan’s in-person plenary presentation ‘GaN’s expected Impact on the Power Electronics Industry to Electrify Our World’ (at 9.15am PDT on 10 May) looks at how wide-bandgap (WBG) technologies are set to displace a significant portion of silicon power devices over the next decade and considers the significant market opportunities, challenges and impacts for GaN to participate in and accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to electrical energy.
“The event is the perfect opportunity to highlight how next-generation WBG power technologies, such as GaN and silicon carbide (SiC), will play an essential role across all major segments to significantly improve energy efficiency, reduce global CO2 emissions, and achieve our global environmental sustainability goals to ‘Electrify our World’,” says Sheridan.
“Members of the compound semiconductor manufacturing community are increasingly working with next-generation, wide-bandgap materials and are keen to find out more about the role of GaN in the ecosystem,” notes Martin Kuball, chairman of the 2022 CS MANTECH Technical Program. “This presentation will give the community insight into the opportunities that lie ahead for widespread GaN adoption.”
GaN runs up to 20x faster than legacy silicon and enables up to 3x more power, 40% energy savings and 3x faster charging in half the size and weight. Navitas’ GaNFast power ICs integrate GaN power and drive plus protection and control circuits to deliver simple, small, fast and efficient power conversion performance for mobile, consumer, enterprise, eMobility and new energy markets. Over 140 Navitas patents are issued or pending. The latest generation of GaNFast ICs with GaNSense technology integrates critical, real-time, autonomous sensing and protection circuits that further improves Navitas’ reliability and robustness.
Due to advanced material performance and Navitas’ proprietary AllGaN process design kit, GaN power ICs are much smaller than silicon chips, and have 4-10x lower CO2 footprint to manufacture and ship. Also, due to their superior level of performance, higher system efficiencies can be achieved to significantly reduce wasted electrical energy and CO2 emissions. In data centers, GaN has the potential to save over 10 million tons of CO2/year through increased efficiency. For electric vehicles (EV), it is estimated that an upgrade from silicon to GaN in on-board chargers (OBCs), DC-DC converters and traction drive inverters could accelerate the worldwide transition from internal combustion engines to EVs by three years, and reduce total road-sector emissions by 20% per year.
With over 40 million devices shipped and no GaN-related field failures, Navitas says that its GaN is proven in the high-end fast charger market. This technology is now available with a 20-year warranty - a critical accelerator for GaN’s adoption in data-center, industrial automation, solar and EV markets.
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