Transphorm Inc of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA, which designs and provides gallium nitride (GaN)-based power conversion devices and modules for power supplies and adapters, motor drives, solar inverters and electric vehicles, is partnering with Tata Power Solar (TPS) of Bangalore, India to introduce an efficient solar inverter based on Transphorm’s GaN-based power switching platform. With its TPH Series portfolio of GaN products (backed by its GaN power IP portfolio), Transphorm claims to have established the industry’s only qualified 600V GaN device platform.
Under the partnership, Transphorm will supply GaN transistors, while Tata Power Solar will locally manufacture and market the GaN-powered solar inverters. The first product is scheduled to be released in early 2015.
"The inverter technology being developed has broad applications beyond solar conversion, and we anticipate these energy-efficient applications will find usage across various Tata companies,” says Tata Power Solar’s CEO Ajay Goel.
"By designing our solar inverter product family with Transphorm’s industry-leading and qualified EZ-GaN platform, Tata Power Solar will provide the Indian energy sector with a compact and higher-efficiency PV inverter as well as a roadmap of higher-performance and smaller-form-factor solar PV power,” says Dr Arul Shanmugasundram, executive VP Projects & chief technology officer for Tata Power Solar. “This world-leading product family will accelerate India’s adoption of solar energy, enabling the goal of using renewables to power 20% of India’s energy needs by 2020,” he believes.
Transphorm says that its efficient, compact and easy-to-embed solutions can simplify the design and manufacturing of a variety of electrical systems and devices, including power supplies and adapters, PV inverters for solar panels, motor drives and power conversion for electric vehicles. The firm adds that its access to automotive-class-quality, high-volume foundry manufacturing through its business partnership with Fujitsu enables it to meet growing global demand from firms adopting energy-saving GaN power conversion products.
