News: Microelectronics
21 January 2020
GaN Systems’ power transistors used in Siemens’ new low-voltage Simatic Micro-Drive product
GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) says that Siemens is integrating part of its Simatic Micro-Drive product line with GaN Systems’ power semiconductors.
“The Simatic Micro-Drive is an extremely versatile, seamless and safety-integrated servo drive system that covers a wide range of applications in the extra-low-voltage range for EC motors from 24V to 48V,” says Christian Neugebauer, Simatic Micro-Drive product manager, at Siemens. “With the GaN Systems devices, we are now able to increase the efficiency of the drives,” he adds. “With GaN, Siemens can switch to a higher frequency, thereby enabling a faster motor response time compared with high-voltage drive systems.”
Recently, Siemens entered the low-voltage drive market with the creation of its new Simatic Micro-Drive safety and extra-low-voltage family. The integrated Simatic Micro-Drive system comes in two different housing sizes for motor outputs of between 100W and 1000W. The fundamental building block is the GaN power transistors made by GaN Systems. This 4-quadrant drive system can be used either with the integrated brake chopper on a power supply or directly in battery operation.
The servo drive system is suited to a wide range of diverse applications in moving, processing and positioning such as conveyor systems and stacker cranes, positioning of individual or multiple coordinated axes, shuttles for storage and retrieval machines or warehousing systems, automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and medical technology.
“Many industrial customers have leveraged the benefits of GaN in their production products,” notes GaN Systems’ CEO Jim Witham. “We have designed and tested the high quality and performance requirements needed to earn the confidence in GaN technology required by our customers and are thrilled to see that the efforts that Siemens and GaN Systems have invested are now being realized.”
