News: Microelectronics
10 November 2020
EPC launches 170V, 6.8mΩ eGaN FET
Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA – which makes enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) and integrated circuits for power management applications – says that it is advancing the performance capability while lowering the cost of off-the-shelf gallium nitride transistors with the introduction of the EPC2059 (6.8mΩ, 170V) eGaN FET.
The device is the latest in a family of 100V–200V solutions suitable for a wide range of power levels and price points. They are designed to meet the increasing demands of 48V–56V server and data-center products as well as an array of consumer power supply applications for high-end computing, including gaming PCs, LCD/LED TVs, and LED lighting.
The EPC2059 is suitable for DC-DC secondary-side synchronous rectification in AC/DC adaptors, fast chargers and power supplies with power ranges between 100W and 6kW. The performance advantage of GaN devices helps designers to achieve the demanding efficiency requirements for 80 Plus Titanium power supplies, while providing smaller, faster, cooler and lighter systems with lower system costs then currently available solutions, says EPC.
“There are very significant performance advantages gained from using GaN in the secondary-side synchronous rectification socket of AC/DC adaptors,” says co-founder & CEO Alex Lidow. “In a 400V-to-48V conversion, switching at 1MHz, GaN has shown to have one-sixth the losses and run 10° cooler than a silicon MOSFET with equivalent on-resistance,” he adds. “This enables designers to meet the latest stringent energy-efficiency standards for high-end computing, where growth is exploding for multiple applications, such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and high-end gaming systems.”
The EPC9098 development board is a 170V maximum device voltage, 25A maximum output current half-bridge with onboard gate drives, featuring the EPC2059 eGaN FETs. This 2” x 2” (50.8mm x 50.8mm) board is designed for optimal switching performance and contains all critical components for easy evaluation of the EPC2059.
The EPC2059 is priced at $1.59 each in 2.5Ku volumes. The EPC9098 development board is price at $123.75 each. Both are available to order from distributor Digi-Key Corp.
