Demonstration Board Delivers Best-in-Class Power Density

EPC announces the availability of the EPC9149, a 1 kW-capable 48 V input to 12 V output LLC converter that operates as a DC transformer with a conversion ratio of 4:1. This demonstration board features the 100V EPC2218 and 40 V EPC20 24GaN FETs.

The board is the size of DOSA-standard ⅛^th brick format, measuring only 58.4 mm by 22.9 mm. This is considerably smaller than alternative silicon-based solutions that are generally sized in the ¼^th brick format, or twice as large, for 1 kW of output power. The total thickness of the converter without heatsink is only 10 mm. To make it simple for a power supply designer to easily replicate this design, all supporting materials for this board including schematic, bills of materials, and Gerber files are available on the EPC website.

The high-power density, 1226 W/in³, is achieved thanks to EPC GaN FET technology. eGaN FETs enable high switching frequency, in this case 1 MHz, and they are very small, ⅓ of the size of silicon MOSFETs with similar on resistance. The EPC9149 board features four 100 V rated EPC2218 eGaN FETs for the primary rectification, and eight 40 V rated EPC2024 eGaN FETs for the secondary synchronous rectification. The board also features a 4 mm x 4 mm Microchip dsPIC33CKMP102T-I/M6 for flexibility, configuration, communications, and programmability.

This new demonstration board can operate from an input voltage between 36 V and 60 V and delivers up to 83.3 A load current. The peak efficiency from 48 V to 12 V is 98% and the full load efficiency, at 12 V when delivering 1 kW, is 97%.The highest temperature in steady state operation at maximum load with 400 LFM airflow is 88°C, which relates to a maximum junction temperature of 95°C.  

Price and Availability

The EPC9149 demonstration board is priced at $381.60 each and is available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key.

For more information, visit the EPC web site.