News: Microelectronics
12 January 2022
Transphorm ships over 1 million GaN devices for fast chargers and power adapters in December
Transphorm Inc of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which designs and manufactures JEDEC- and AEC-Q101-qualified gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) for high-voltage power conversion applications — says that it shipped more than 1 million SuperGaN Gen IV FETs in December.
The firm says that the milestone confirms its previously stated ability to meet high-volume capacity of qualified packaged devices and its growing market share. It also marks a more than 3x increase in units shipped in second-half 2021 over first-half 2021. Highlighting the continued expansion of Transphorm’s ecosystem, the shipped FETs are for use in 45-300W power adapter and fast-charger applications manufactured by new and existing customers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC).
Transphorm’s SuperGaN product family for compact power conversion applications currently includes three 650V devices: 480mΩ FETs, 300mΩ FETs and 150mΩ FETs. These are offered in standard PQFN 5x6 and 8x8 packages and meet JEDEC qualification standards at 150°C.
Compared with alternative GaN semiconductors (i.e. e-mode and IC GaN), advantages of the SuperGaN devices are said to include:
- Superior performance in a smaller die size: Data shows that the SuperGaN platform delivers higher efficiency versus lower on-resistance devices.
- Ease of designability and drivability: The SuperGaN platform’s patented architecture includes an integrated silicon FET with a universal interface and does not require excessive amounts of peripheral circuitry. This interface allows for the use of popular, off-the-shelf controllers with integrated drivers; a requirement for high-efficiency power adapter topologies such as the QRF (quasi-resonant flyback) and ACF (active clamp flyback).
- Best-in-class quality & reliability: Based on over 30 billion hours of operation, Transphorm devices in the field yield a FIT (failure-in-time) rate of <0.3; meaning less than 0.3 failures statistically over 1 billion operating field hours.
“We’re thrilled to have partnered with our suppliers and customers to hit our targeted volume manufacturing goal of 1 million units per month. It demonstrates our rising market share in the rapidly growing fast-charger and power adapter segment as well as our ability to reproduce high-performance, high-reliability GaN devices at scale,” says president & co-founder Primit Parikh. “Transphorm’s traction in both lower-power and multi-kilowatt high-power applications underscores the leadership of our technology,” he reckons. “This, combined with recent capital raises of more than $45m last quarter, supports strong, positive momentum for our continued expansion and growth in 2022.”
Transphorm says that the technical advantages of its product portfolio – which currently includes 650V and 900V devices in various packages – are largely driven by the firm’s vertical integration. Uncommon in the GaN industry, this operation model allows Transphorm to control its devices’ design, epitaxial wafer, and manufacturing process. As a result, the firm now claims that it supports the largest range of power conversion requirements (45W to 10+kW) across the widest range of power applications (power adapters, data-center and gaming PSUs, crypto-mining rigs, automotive converters, inverters for renewables, and others).
