News: Microelectronics
29 September 2022
GaN Systems ‘GaN Cup’ power electronics design competition chooses 16 finalists
GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) says that 16 teams from China’s top universities have been selected as finalists in the 8th annual ‘GaN Systems Cup’ College Power Electronics Application Design Competition.
First launched by the China Power Supply Society (CPSS) in 2015 as an exploratory engineering practice activity for college students across the country, the competition is the highest-level college student competition in the country’s power electronics field. Finalists have been selected based on their prototype design work around high-efficiency and high-power-density single-stage photovoltaic inverters using GaN Systems’ power transistors.
This year’s competition, which began in January, appealed to a broad universe of college students — attracting 64 teams from 46 colleges and universities across the country. This year’s teams are tasked with creating a GaN-based 400V photovoltaic power supply design that uses GaN Systems’ semiconductors to meet the following evaluation criteria:
- a low-cost design with 360–400VDC input voltage, 220VAC output voltage, and total harmonic distortion (THD) of <3% @400VA output;
- greater than 93% efficiency, 10W/in3 power density, and the ability to run continuously at 25ºC for 30 minutes.
In May, project proposals of participating teams were reviewed, and 50 teams were selected to enter the preliminary round of the competition.
The 16 finalists will present their designs concurrent with this year’s 25th Annual Academic Conference of the China Power Supply Society (CPSSC 2022), co-located with the 2022 China Power Electronics and Energy Conversion Conference (CPEEC 2022, where GaN Systems is exhibiting in booth B010) at the Guangzhou Yuexiu International Conference Center Guangdong Province (4-7 November). Designs will be judged on design criteria, functionality, ingenuity and presentation quality. Winners will be recognized at an on-site awards ceremony at CPSSC.
“We are thrilled to be in the eighth year of this competition, which encourages power electronics students to apply what they have learned and link theory with practice,” says GaN Systems’ CEO Jim Witham. “The competition provides an incredible opportunity to showcase next-generation GaN-powered designs that will revolutionize the power industry, contribute to sustainability actions, while also encouraging more students to innovate in the field of power electronics using GaN power semiconductors.”
