News: Microelectronics
25 May 2021
EPC’s 1kW, 48V-to-12V LLC power conversion demo board delivers
Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA – which makes enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) for power management applications – has announced availability of the EPC9149, a 1kW-capable 48V input-to-12V output LLC converter that operates as a DC transformer with a conversion ratio of 4:1. The demonstration board features the 100V EPC2218 and 40V EPC2024 GaN FETs.
The board is the size of the DOSA-standard ⅛th-brick format, measuring only 58.4mm by 22.9mm. This is reckoned to be considerably smaller than alternative silicon-based solutions that are generally sized in the ¼th-brick format, or twice as large, for 1kW of output power. Total thickness of the converter without heatsink is only 10mm. To make it simple for a power supply designer to easily replicate this design, all supporting materials for this board including schematic, bills of materials, and Gerber files are available on the EPC website.
The high power density of 1226W/in3 is achieved due to EPC’s GaN FET technology, the firm says. eGaN FETs enable high switching frequency (in this case 1MHz) and they are very small (a third the size of silicon MOSFETs with similar on-resistance). The EPC9149 board features four 100V-rated EPC2218 eGaN FETs for the primary rectification and eight 40V-rated EPC2024 eGaN FETs for the secondary synchronous rectification. The board also features a 4mm x 4mm Microchip dsPIC33CKMP102T-I/M6 for flexibility, configuration, communications and programmability.
The new demonstration board can operate from an input voltage of 36-60V and delivers up to 83.3A load current. The peak efficiency from 48V to 12V is 98% and the full load efficiency, at 12V when delivering 1kW, is 97%. The highest temperature in steady-state operation at maximum load with 400LFM airflow is 88°C, which relates to a maximum junction temperature of 95°C.
“eGaN FETs and integrated circuits increase power density for 48V-to-12V converters and address data-center application demands for higher power in a small size,” says CEO Alex Lidow. “The use of a Microchip digital controller allows flexibility for programming and configuration of the EPC9149 demonstration board.”
The EPC9149 demonstration board is priced at $381.60 each and is available for immediate delivery from distributor DigiKey Corp. The EPC9149 ships with a motherboard to simplify testing.
EPC introduces 300W 1/16th-brick 48V-to-12V demo board
EPC and Microchip co-develop 300W 16th brick 48V–12V DC-DC converter demonstration board
