News: Microelectronics
13 May 2022
Navitas GaN ICs fast-charge Lenovo’s 2022 Legion Gen 7 gaming laptops
GaN power integrated circuit firm Navitas Semiconductor of El Segundo, CA, USA and Dublin, Ireland says that its next-generation GaNFast power ICs with GaNSense technology have been used in Lenovo’s new Legion C135 GaN charger.
Lenovo’s Legion 5 and 5 Pro Gen 7 laptops are gaming machines, featuring AMD Rembrandt Ryzen 9 or Intel 12th-generation Alder Lake Core CPUs, AMD Radeon Vega or NVIDIA RTX GPUs, 32GB of DDR5 memory, 1TB of solid-state drive, up to 16” screens with 240Hz refresh rates, and an 80Whr battery.
GaN runs up to 20x faster than legacy silicon chips, and enables up to 3x more power or 3x faster charging in half the size and weight. GaNFast power ICs with GaNSense technology integrates power, drive and control with additional autonomous-protection and loss-less current sensing to deliver simple, small, fast and now even higher-power performance.
The 135W-rated GaNFast charger is only 66mm x 65mm x 31mm (133cc) – 40% smaller than legacy chargers – so the C135 achieves a power density over 1W/cc. The power conversion topology is a power factor correction (PFC) stage followed by an isolating high-frequency, quasi-resonant (HFQR) flyback using Navitas’ NV6136A GaNFast power IC with GaNSense technology. This eliminates the system-current-sensing resistor, avoids a high-temperature ‘hot spot’ and delivers an additional 10% of energy savings with increased system reliability. Peak charging efficiency is over 92%, enabling the high power density.
The C135 adopts Lenovo’s proprietary protocol to reach the full 135W rating and a 0-100% charge-time of only 65 minutes. Also equipped with universal, industry-standard protocols (USB-PD, USB-PPS and QC) at 100W and below, the C135 can also fast-charge any number of laptop, tablet, phone and audio models from Lenovo and any other manufacturer.
“Navitas’ GaNFast power ICs have proven themselves at Lenovo with high performance and high quality since the 2020 launch of the 90W charger for the Lenovo Legion Pro Gaming Phone,” comments Chen Long, Lenovo’s PRC consumer IP product marketing manager. “Now, we are excited to see the next generation of Navitas ICs in the powerful C135, to bring a lighter, more powerful charging experience to consumers for the whole Legion family, including the Y9000P laptop, Y700 tablet, and Y90 mobile phone,” he adds.
“We at Honoto are very happy to join hands with Navitas again to use the Gen-3 GaNFast power IC solution in Lenovo’s Legion C135 and enable it to be an excellent high-power gallium nitride fast charger,” comments Yuetian Wang, vice chairman of power adapter maker Honoto. “Navitas’ GaN power IC is fast and efficient, easy-to-use, and has a higher reliability and success rate in development and use. This has enabled us to develop better power products and accelerate to market at a much faster pace.”
Navitas and Lenovo have collaborated on multi-media promotion for the C135 charger and GaNFast power ICs, including co-branded video displays in the Nasdaq Tower in New York’s Times Square, and via social media.
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