- News
29 November 2017
Transphorm receives $15m investment from servo motor firm Yaskawa
© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno Publishing
Transphorm Inc of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA – which designs and manufactures JEDEC- and AEC-Q101-qualified 650V gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) for high-voltage power conversion applications – has received a $15m investment from Yaskawa Electric Corp of Kitakyushu, Japan.
This follows Yaskawa revealing as recently as late September that its integrated Σ-7 F servo motor was using Transphorm’s high-voltage (HV) GaN. Transphorm intends to allocate the funds to various areas of its GaN product development.
“We’ve seen the benefits of working with gallium nitride from the R&D phases through to the application development phases of our products, such as photovoltaic converters and the integrated Σ-7 F servo motor,” says Yukio Tsutsui, general manager of Yaskawa’s Corporate R&D Center. “We look ahead to further developments from Transphorm.”
The integrated Σ-7 F products resulting from the companies’ co-development serves one of the core target markets that can benefit most from HV GaN: servo motors. The technology is also said to be an optimal solution for automotive systems, data-center and industrial power supplies, renewable energy and other broad industrial applications.
“Transphorm has consistently prioritized the quality and reliability of our GaN platform,” says Transphorm’s chairman, chief technology officer & co-founder Dr Umesh Mishra. “That focus leads to strong customer relationships with visionaries such as Yaskawa and companies that not only innovate, but also influence market growth by demonstrating GaN’s real-world impact,” he adds. “Receiving Yaskawa’s recent support illustrates the rising confidence in GaN while underscoring its reliability.”
Transphorm partner Yaskawa Electric’s new servo motor first to use GaN
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Transphorm GaN-on-Si GaN HEMT Power electronics