News: Microelectronics
13 March 2025
CGD focusing on motor drive, data-center, scalable power and EV applications at APEC
In booth 2039 at the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference & Exposition (APEC 2025) in the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA, USA (16–20 March), 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 — is demonstrating that its ICeGaN gallium nitride ICs can now satisfy a broad range of applications with higher power requirements, such as servers, data centers, inverters, industrial power supplies and, very soon, automotive electric vehicles (EVs) to over 100kW. The firm’s new P2 series ICs feature RDS(on) levels down to 25mΩ, supporting multi-kW power levels with the highest efficiency, and a secure supply chain is in place including manufacturing deals with TSMC and ASE, and distribution through Digi-Key Corp.
“GaN is now widely accepted as the technology of choice for mobile device chargers and is now set to supersede traditional silicon MOSFETs in higher-power applications,” says Henryk Dabrowski, senior VP of global sales. “The industry is also beginning to realize that GaN may replace SiC [silicon carbide] in certain high-efficiency designs, due to its lower manufacturing cost.” At APEC, CGD is demonstrating the ruggedness, reliability and ease of use of its ICeGaN GaN IC technology.”
On 19 March at APEC, CGD is giving the following presentations:
- Industry Session: IS14.7 (4:30–4:55pm ET, Level Four, A411) – ‘Unlocking the Potential of Multi-level Inverters with Integrated ICeGaN technologies’ by Daniel Murphy, director of technical marketing.
As the electric vehicle market develops, there is a continuous drive to look at new and novel approaches to further improve the efficiency of the traction inverter and other electrical subsystems.
Multi-level inverters enable the use of much high switching frequencies and break down the total voltage into smaller steps, which in turn allows for improved efficiency and downsizing of other parts of the system. GaN technology optimizes the benefits of multi-level topologies. CGD says that its ICeGaN technology brings a higher level of integration, lower cost, best-in-class robustness and ease of use. - Exhibitor Presentation (12:45–1:15pm ET, A301) – ‘ICeGaN Leads the Industry in GaN Integration’ by Peter Di Maso, VP business development.
This presentation demonstrates how ICeGaN technology leads in simplification, cost reduction, robustness, carbon footprint and efficiency of GaN power applications.
Demonstrations
In booth 2039, CGD is presenting demos that highlight the benefits of employing its ICeGaN technology in three application spaces:
Motor drives
- ICeGaN versus discrete GaN circuits comparison in half-bridge (daughter card) demo board.
- High- and low-power Qorvo motor drive evaluation kits utilizing ICeGaN and developed in collaboration with CGD.
- Half-bridge built using CGD’s ICeGaN ICs in the BHDFN (bottom heat-spreader DFN) bottom-side-cooled package with wettable flanks for easy inspection.
Data centers
- 3kW totem-pole PFC evaluation board.
- Half-bridge built using CGD’s BHDFN-packaged ICeGaN ICs.
- Full-bridge demo showing CGD’s ICeGaN ICs in the DHDFN (dual heat-spreader DFN) package which has low thermal resistance (Rth(JC)), and can be operated with bottom-side, top-side and dual-side cooling. This package offers flexibility in design and out-performs the often-used TOLT package in top-side and, especially, dual-side cooled configurations.
- 2.5kW GaN-based CCM totem-pole PFC reference design targetting LED drivers, industrial brick DC/DC and general PSUs with power range of 500W to 1.5kW.
Scalable power
- New single IC ICeGaN technology platform that delivers over 100kW, enabling CGD to address the $10bn+ EV market, currently dominated by SiC, with cost-effective GaN solutions.
- Single leg of a 3-phase 800V automotive inverter demo board, developed in partnership with French public R&I institute IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN).
- Parallel evaluation board demoing ICeGaN’s higher-power capabilities.
- Full-bridge demo showing CGD’s ICeGaN ICs in the DHDFN package.
“This is an exciting time for our industry as it embraces the disruptive GaN technology. Although this change from silicon has indisputably shown the power density and efficiency benefits of GaN, only CGD is presenting this new technology in an easy-to-use solution, which has been proven to be the most rugged in the industry,” claims CEO & co-founder Dr Giorgia Longobardi. “With our technology roadmap which details how ICeGaN will be able to address even EV applications to over 100kW, we are sure designers will be inspired by the possibilities that ICeGaN has opened up.”
CGD raises $32m in Series C funding round
CGD’s senior VP of global sales to lead expansion into additional markets
CGD and IFPEN demo GaN-based 800VDC inverter that outperforms SiC
CGD and Qorvo collaborate on evaluation kit for motor control systems
