News: Microelectronics
4 June 2024
CGD adds new ICeGaN power IC packages with enhanced thermal performance
Fabless firm Cambridge GaN Devices Ltd (CGD) — which was spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2016 to design, develop and commercialize power transistors and ICs that use GaN-on-silicon substrates — has announced two new packages for its ICeGaN family of GaN power ICs that offer enhanced thermal performance and simplify inspection. As variants of the well-proven DFN style, both packages are said to be extremely rugged and reliable.
Developed for CGD, the DHDFN-9-1 (Dual Heat-spreader DFN) is a thin, dual-side-cooled package with a small 10mm x 10mm footprint and wettable flanks to simplify optical inspection. It offers low thermal resistance (Rth(JC) and can be operated with bottom-side, top-side and dual-side cooling, offering flexibility in design and out-performing the often-used TOLT package in top-side and, especially, dual-side-cooled configurations. The DHDFN-9-1 package has been designed with dual-gate pinout to facilitate optimal PCB layout and simple paralleling, enabling customers to address applications up to 6kW with ease, it is said.
The BHDFN-9-1 (Bottom Heat-spreader DFN) is a bottom-side-cooled package, also with wettable flanks for easy inspection. Thermal resistance is 0.28K/W, matching or exceeding other leading devices, it is claimed. Measuring 10mm x 10mm, the BHDFN is smaller than the commonly used TOLL package yet shares a similar footprint, hence a common layout with TOLL-packaged GaN power ICs is possible for ease of use and evaluation.
“These new packages are part of our strategy to enable customers to use our ICeGaN GaN power ICs at higher power levels,” says product marketing manager Nare Gabrielyan. “Servers, data centers, inverters/motor drives, micro-inverters and other industrial applications are all beginning to enjoy the power density and efficiency benefits that GaN brings, but they are also more demanding. Therefore, it is essential for such applications that devices are also rugged and reliable, and easy to design in. These attributes are inherent in ICeGaN, and are supported and extended by the new packages.”
CGD says that improving thermal resistance performance has several benefits. First, more power output is available at the same RDS(on) . Devices also run at cooler temperatures for the same power, so less heat-sinking is required, resulting in reduced system costs. Lower operating temperatures also lead to higher reliability and longer lifetimes. Finally, if cost is the constraint for the application, designers can use a lower-cost part with a higher RDS(on) and still achieve the required power output.
The new packages are being shown for the first time publicly in booth # 7 643 at Power, Control and Intelligent Motion (PCIM) Europe 2024 in Nuremberg, Germany (11–13 June).
