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, says that its EPC2100 family of eGaN monolithic half-bridge power transistor products has been honored by Electronic Products magazine (a trade publication for electronic design engineers) with its 2014 Product of the Year award (announced in the January issue).
Of the thousands of products launched in 2014 that were evaluated, the winning products were selected on the basis of innovative design, significant advancement in technology or application, and substantial achievement in price and performance. The eGaN half-bridges demonstrated success in the category of discrete semiconductors by being the first commercially available enhancement-mode single-chip transistor half-bridge.
Specifically, the EPC2100 GaN power transistor offers power systems designers a solution that increases efficiency and power density for complete buck converter systems approaching 93% at 10A and more than 90.5% at 25A when switching at 500kHz and converting from 12V to 1.2V.
“The EPC2100 family of half-bridge products represent a significant step in the emergence of gallium nitride semiconductor technology,” comments Electronic Products’ senior editor Paul O’Shea. “By integrating two eGaN power FETs into a single device, interconnect inductances and the interstitial space needed on the PCB are eliminated. This increases both efficiency (especially at higher frequencies) and power density, while reducing assembly costs to the end-user’s power conversion system,” he adds.
“This award substantiates that gallium nitride technology continues to emerge as the performance leader in power conversion technology,” says EPC’s co-founder & CEO Alex Lidow. “We believe that silicon-based MOSFETs have reached the end of the road, and that eGaN technology will lead the way for continued increases in performance in power management.”
