Welcome to the November issue of Power Systems Design Europe. This month our Special Report is on power semiconductors, which are the bread and butter of the industry. The last few years have made really interesting viewing as wide-bandgap semiconductors have established themselves in the market and are fighting silicon for market share. Traditionally around 650V was the point where GaN and SiC met, while silicon could be used throughout the voltage scale. However, things are changing really quickly.
Companies like EPC are driving GaN into much lower voltage applications, areas that nobody really expected GaN to reach, even a few years ago. The faster switching of GaN enables higher efficiencies, and smaller solutions due to the smaller inductors needed. If costs can be brought to a similar level, then there will be little need for silicon, especially as designers get more familiar with new techniques for driving GaN.
At the other end of the scale, GaN keeps creeping into higher and higher voltages. Last month Power Integrations previewed a 2.2KV GaN technology, with first products due next year. Also at higher voltages, SiC is continuing to take market share from silicon. As the costs to manufacture SiC wavers decreases, adoption should quicken.
As for the magazine this month, the first feature in the Special Report comes from Analog Devices. With what I’ve written above, it would be easy to imagine that silicon’s days are numbered, and it is only a matter of time before the material is replaced completely. However, engineers are working hard to ensure that silicon remains relevant. In this case, the article looks at removing noise from high current applications. The LTM4707 is designed to only require one resistor to set output voltage, and it employs advanced EMI noise cancellation technology techniques and proprietary design and packaging techniques to provide an ultra-low-noise µModule regulator. This means that an LDO is no longer needed for regulation in noise-sensitive applications.
The second article in the Special Report comes from Würth Elektronik, and it looks at the passives that bring out the best in power semiconductors. AI data centres require huge amounts of power, and in the future that figure will grow considerably. Even a very small percentage of losses generates a lot of heat at very high currents, and that costs data centre operators a lot of money to mitigate. Innovation in power electronics has done a great job of minimizing losses, but can manufacturers of passive components do the same with their own components? Alexander Gerfer from Würth looks at the types of passives required by data centres, and how they are changing to meet these new demands and provide highly efficient operation.
As well as the features in the Special Report, this month’s magazine will also include general articles of interest to power engineers in our Tech Focus section, as well as the latest news and views from the industry.
Best Regards,
Ally Winning
European Editor, PSD
