All GaN driver integration takes power switching to 40MHz
With the monolithic integration of GaN power FETs with drive and logic, the company claims 10x to 100x higher running frequencies than existing silicon circuits, setting new benchmarks in power density, energy efficiency and system cost.
The AllGaN platform was presented at the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) by the company’s CTO / COO & Co-Founder, Dan Kinzer, in a keynote titled “Breaking Speed Limits with GaN Power ICs”.
eeNews Europe caught up with Navitas’ Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Stephen Oliver to learn more about the company’s ambitions.
About Navitas’ technology breakthrough, Oliver says, “Today, if you want to use a GaN FET, you need to add a control IC and a silicon driver, that’s a three-chip solution. Using a lateral hetero-epitaxy structure, we are able to integrate the driver directly on the GaN FET, which we can run at up to 40MHz”.
The good thing is that by integrating drive and logic functions laterally, the company can use large-diameter GaN on Si wafers.
“If you tried to integrate the logic vertically, GaN on GaN, then you would be limited to very small and expensive 3-inch wafers”, Oliver explains.
This makes Navitas ready to deliver high volumes using existing equipment from existing OSAT companies. Indeed, the startup plans to follow a fabless business model, it will sell devices but it could well license its IP too.
From the start, company Co-Founder Dan Kinzer had clear ideas on how to take GaN to its full potential.
“You have to remember that Kinzer is a very experienced guy, he was the process guy at IR who took the HEXFET from blueprint to a real product”. We started up with a basic FET structure licensed from a US research lab and developed our own process design kit with added lateral structures”, commented Oliver.
“We’ll start our product roadmap with single FETs with a monolithically integrated driver to go after applications from AC to high voltage DC in a high performance QFN package only 5x6mm, then we’ll move to multiple FET ICs with multiple drivers and added logic functions such as hysteretic digital inputs, voltage regulation or ESD protection”, Oliver said, mentioning that his company has been sampling its first products at the end of 2014.
“Our first range of devices will target applications from 300 to 500W, anything from chargers to TV power supplies. In 2015, we engaged with multiple prototyping customers, their first reaction was that our GaN FETs behaved like an ideal switch. It only takes a very small current to turn on the signal (with a prop delay as low as 5ns) and deliver the power, the waveform on the oscilloscope looks like an ideal simulation, with no overshoot or spike, nor oscillations”.
According to the company’s presentation material, while typical adapters run at 65 to 150kHz and achieve a power density of about 5 to 12W/in3, Navitas’ first demo achieved a power density of 13.5W/in3 when running at 500kHz, something customers aim to push to 20-25W/in3.
Navitas is expecting its first official product release next summer.
Related news:
GaN FET production steps up 10-fold – GaN Systems
GaN transistors promise more light for less energy
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