News: Microelectronics
19 April 2024
Virtual Forest adopts Navitas’ GaNFast for 2250W solar-powered irrigation pump
Virtual Forest of Bengaluru, India (an electronics design company specializing in motor control and human interface technologies for consumer appliances, fluid movement and mobility) has adopted the GaNFast power integrated circuits (IC) technology of gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA for a zero-emission, 3hp (2250W) solar-powered irrigation pump.
For farmers worldwide, irrigating remote crops requires powerful pumps to lift water from rivers and streams up to field-level, with most powered by polluting and noisy diesel generators or expensive, lossy long-distance electrical cables, notes Navitas. The Virtual Forest solar pump with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) operates in conjunction with solar panel and energy storage to provide robust, energy-independent and pollution-free performance at the point of use. The 3hp (2250W) pump is remotely accessed via quad-band IoT with low power consumption. It can raise over 50 gallons per minute of water to a height of over 90 feet, enough to water 3 acres of farmland, and help to produce 10 tonnes of wheat. Further, the IoT-enabled solar pump ensures optimal water usage through intelligent analytics, minimizing ground-water utilization.
Navitas GaNSense half-bridge power ICs monolithically integrate two GaN power FETs with GaN drivers, level-shifters, protection features and high-efficiency loss-less current sensing. High-efficiency NV6269 half-bridge ICs, in easy-to-use 8mm x 10mm QFN packages are used in a 3-phase motor inverter, with 3-5x energy savings versus legacy silicon IGBTs, it is reckoned.
“The $450m solar-pump market in India is expected to reach $1.5bn by 2026, calling for a solar revolution on Indian fields,” says Virtual Forest’s CEO Omer Basith. “Reliable, off-grid systems are critical to overcome food insecurity and achieve energy efficiency. Leveraging Navitas’ high-power, efficient GaNSense half-bridge, we seek to deliver a robust solution to the market. We are nurturing our dream to drive gigatons of reduction in carbon emissions,” he adds.
“The design team at Virtual Forest adopted the GaNSense half-bridges very quickly, for a fast time-to-market,” says Navitas’ senior sales director Alessandro Squeri. “With GaNSense ‘easy-to-use’ features, Virtual Forest comes into the partnership with high efficiency, low component count and a robust design for tough environments.”
