Wide-Bandgap Semis
March 2022
Estimating the useable lifetime of electronic components has always been an important task for design engineers, especially for critical applications where the design might see service for several decades. Although manufacturers do specify a lifetime on datasheets, that is under ideal conditions at normal operati
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Date:
03/30/2022
Semiconductor manufacturers commonly provide simulation models for their MOSFETs, but these usually only include a limited number of device parameters which have been modelled at typical operating temperatures. Nexperia’s new advanced models capture the thermal interdependency of the complete set of device pa
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Date:
03/28/2022
With its single-switch topology and high integration, including current-sensing and protection circuitry also built-in, the VIPerGaN50 comes in a compact and low-cost 5mm x 6mm package. The speed of the integrated GaN transistor allows a high switching frequency with a small and lightweight flyback transformer
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Date:
03/28/2022
The components will ideally be applied in power supply circuits for industrial equipment such as base stations and data centers along with IoT communication devices.
In recent years – due to the rising demand for server systems in response to the growing number of IoT devices – improving powe
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Date:
03/28/2022
Power Integrations announced the HiperPFS™-5 family of power-factor-correction (PFC) ICs with an integrated 750 V PowiGaN gallium-nitride switch. With efficiency of up to 98.3 percent, the new ICs deliver up to 240 W without a heat sink and can achieve a power factor of better than 0.98. HiperPFS-5 ICs are i
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Date:
03/28/2022
Benefiting from the latest power switching technologies, the LHA10F and LHA15F are 15% smaller and offer a leakage current 50% lower than conventional products on the market. Designed for use in a wide range of applications, the LHA10F and LHA15F are able to operate in a wide temperature range from -10 to +70 degr
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Date:
03/28/2022
Navitas Semiconductor has announced a breakthrough 20-year limited warranty for its GaNFast technology – 10x longer than typical silicon, SiC or discrete GaN power semiconductors – and a critical accelerator for GaN’s adoption in data center, solar and EV markets.
GaN is a next-generation semiconductor te
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Date:
03/28/2022
Aiming at space-limited designs, the next-generation devices complement the existing 2EDN driver ICs by providing higher system-level efficiencies, excellent power density, and consistent system robustness with fewer external components. Building upon this expansion, the 2EDN family is now able to drive the power s
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Date:
03/28/2022
The devices are optimized for automotive discrete traction inverters and expand Infineon's portfolio of discrete high-voltage devices for automotive applications. Due to their high quality, the IGBTs meet and exceed the industry standard AECQ101 for automotive components. As a result, the devices can significantly increa
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Date:
03/28/2022
Infineon’s VP of Silicon Carbide, Peter Friedrichs
We’re all familiar with GaN and SiC at this point, and they’ve begun to infiltrate nearly every corner of the market. But several questions remain, and here with us to talk about wide bandgap devices is Infineon’s VP of Silicon Carbide, Peter Friedrichs.
Date:
03/23/2022
Dr. Denis Marcon, General Manager of Innoscience Europe and Marketing Manager for the USA and Europe
Innoscience Technology announced a new ultra-high-density 140W power supply demo that uses the company's high- and low-voltage GaN HEMT devices to achieve efficiencies of over 95% (230VAC; 5V/28A). Measuring just 60x60x22mm (2.4x2.4x0.9in) the PSU has a class-leading power density of 1.76W/cm3 (29W/in3).
Dr. Denis Marcon,
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Date:
03/22/2022
Silanna Semiconductor, The Power Density Leader, and smart socket outlet specialist Smarter Living, have announced the world’s smallest 65W in-wall GaN (gallium nitride) fast charger. Measuring just 42mm x 42mm x 30mm, the new 3510PDFE charger is built around Silanna’s SZ1131 active clamp flyback (ACF) controller an
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Date:
03/21/2022
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1: Introduction
Battery chargers for electric vehicles require galvanic isolation between the grid connection and the batteries. Therefore, an EV charger almost always has two stages: a high power-quality rectifier that converts AC to DC, followed by a DC-DC converter utilizing a high-frequency transformer
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Date:
03/15/2022
EPC announces the introduction of the EPC7019 radiation-hardened eGaN FET. The EPC7019, a 40 V, 1.5 mΩ, 530 APulsed, rad-hard eGaN FET in a small 13.9 mm2 footprint. The EPC7019 has a total dose rating greater than 1 Mrad and SEE immunity for LET of 85 MeV/(mg/cm2). These devices are offered in a chip-scale p
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Date:
03/15/2022
EPC announces the availability of the EPC9160, a dual output synchronous buck converter reference design board operating at 2 MHz switching frequency that converts an input voltage of 9 V to 24 V to a 3.3 V or 5 V output voltage and delivers up to 15 A continuous current for both outputs. Thanks to the hi
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Date:
03/14/2022
Silanna Semiconductor has further expanded its family of silicon- and GaN-based fast charger reference designs with an all-silicon option that will significantly reduce the time needed to develop high-density 45W applications. Supplied as a fully production-ready solution, the new RD-24 design provides everything ne
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Date:
03/11/2022
The first wide bandgap devices that entered the market were oversold due to investors, VC capital companies and other players hoping for a quick return on investment. Some said, for example, that gallium nitride devices would completely replace and improve silicon in every application. This of course was a dream.
Wide Bandgap t
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1: Experienced power designers have crossed that technological chasm many times, with the latest one being the migration from analog control to digital (Source: PRBX)
For a power designer, any new technology that makes it possible to improve performance whilst simultaneously making products smaller and more energy efficient is a very exciting concept. Over the last century the world of power electronics has witnessed many innovations, with the latest major one being the move fr
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1: A passive primary clamp RCD solution (highlighted) is highly dissipative and limits the efficiency and operating frequency of flyback power supplies
Off-line flyback power supplies require a clamp circuit (sometimes called a snubber) on the primary side of the transformer to limit the drain-source voltage stress on the power MOSFET when this switch turns off during normal operation. There are several approaches to designing these clamp circuits. Low-cost pa
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1: Pricing comparison between eGaN FETs and MOSFETs. Prices were for 1,000 pieces in February 2022
In many applications, such as lidar and space electronics, adoption of GaN has been extremely rapid. Lidar flourished as a result of the extremely high speed of GaN devices, which is more than 10 times faster than the aging silicon MOSFET. Space electronics has rapidly accepted GaN-on-Si power transistors du
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1: Test set up for VR stability evaluation
Engineers are busy replacing and updating their aged PC boards that use traditional transistors, typically super-junction silicon MOSFETs and Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs).
One hot area in this upgrading process is power supplies for pulse-load applications, such as laser pulse drivers, light bea
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1. GaN transistors enable more efficient, cooler-running, compact, and cost-efficient designs
GaN offers low RDSon/VDSon, high electron mobility, and other characteristics that result in more efficient designs. Higher switching frequencies allow designers to make tradeoffs between efficiency and switching speed for application-optimized designs. These characteristics enable more efficient solutions, run
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1: PFC topologies: dual-boost PFC (a) and boost PFC (b)
Almost all of the popular modern-day trends involve an AC/DC power supply, which takes energy from the AC grid and delivers it to the electrical equipment as a well-regulated DC. With the increasing power consumption in these systems, the associated energy losses in the AC/DC power conversion process becomes a si
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Date:
03/01/2022
Hopefully, all is well wherever you are based and things are returning to normal. March marks the start of Spring, and it is usually a time that is full on for the industry, with APEC, the largest power show in the Americas scheduled at the end of the month. APEC will return to an in-person format this year, so
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Date:
03/01/2022
Our March issue focuses on arguably the hottest industry topic over the last several years, Wide Bandgap Technology. But first, later this month marks one of our industry’s most humble little victories over COVID-19, and that’s the Applied Power Electronics Conference’s (APEC’s) return to a fully in-person fo
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Date:
03/01/2022
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Figure 1: OBC design presents a number of challenges to power designers
Within the automotive industry, development and innovation continue at a rapid pace in almost all aspects of vehicle design, from the chassis to the powertrain, infotainment, connectivity, and automation. However, with the time taken to recharge electric vehicles (EVs) – especially in-journey – being cited
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Date:
03/01/2022
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