Why Wide BandGap (WBG), and why GaN specifically? AspenCore Media’s new book, the “AspenCore Guide to Gallium Nitride: A New Era for Power Electronics,” answers those questions and more.
WBG power semiconductor devices in silicon carbide and GaN technology provide design advantages that are allowing previously unimaginable application performance: low leakage current, significantly reduced power losses, higher power density, higher-frequency operation, and the ability to tolerate higher operating temperatures, all with a smaller device size than could be achieved for a silicon-only equivalent. Other features, of no lesser importance, are robustness and increased reliability, resulting in improved overall device life expectancy and increased operational stability.
Energy efficiency is now a strategic initiative in increasingly power-reliant industries such as data centers, electric vehicles, and the green grid. GaN-based devices hold the key to addressing a primary hurdle for the expansion of renewable energy.
From a power management standpoint, all power systems require a high level of integration to achieve the required portability. High energy efficiency is required for truly portable and therefore battery-operated systems. Lower power consumption maximizes device operating time without recharging or replacing the batteries.
GaN must operate safely and efficiently in a high-frequency ecosystem to fulfill its role in advancing the necessary revolution in fast charging, power conversion and energy storage. Integrating GaN FET, GaN analog, and GaN logic will yield a true GaN power IC.
The “AspenCore Guide to Gallium Nitride” is now available for purchase at eetimes.com/shop/