News: Microelectronics
15 December 2022
Transphorm releases new GaN FET reliability ratings, now segmented into low and high power levels
Transphorm Inc of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which designs and manufactures JEDEC- and AEC-Q101-qualified gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) for high-voltage power conversion — has announced the latest reliability ratings for its GaN power FETs.
Reliability is measured by failures in time (FIT), which considers the number of devices reported by customers to have failed in the field when used in applications. To date, the firm’s total product portfolio has achieved an average <0.1 FIT rate based on more than 85 billion hours of field operation. This rating stands as one of the industry’s best and only reported broad power spectrum reliability rating of any GaN power solution available, it is claimed.
Transphorm says that it built its GaN platform with reliability in mind, understanding its importance when the wide-bandgap technology first hit the market: even though GaN boasted higher performance than silicon-based transistors, customers would not opt to switch to the then-new technology if the devices failed in real-world use. In 2019, Transphorm was the first GaN manufacturer to publish a complete validation data set backing its reliability claims. Since then, the firm regularly shares its GaN reliability to help potential customers make informed decisions when choosing semiconductor suppliers. Transphorm last reported its FIT rate to be <0.3 in first-quarter 2022.
This year, Transphorm has taken its reliability data and segmented it into two categories:
- low power: GaN devices used in applications with power levels ≤500W;
- high power: GaN devices used in applications >500W.
When looking at device performance by power-level type, Transphorm’s GaN FETs yield the following reliability ratings that are notably similar to those of silicon-based power devices:
- low power: 0.06 FIT;
- high power: 0.19 FIT.
“Our high-voltage GaN devices are designed into the broadest range of applications covering the widest power spectrum, from 45W to 4kW today with the potential to reach 10+kW as GaN is adopted into new markets. This shows the immense versatility of our technology,” says Philip Zuk, senior VP of business development & marketing. “However, we realized that reporting just a singular reliability rating that lumps all application types together may not be as useful to customers. We felt it necessary to help them access more nuanced data that would apply to their specific design requirements. Hence, the breakdown between low and high power.”
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