Global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corp of Thief River Falls, MN, USA has announced new inventory of gallium nitride (GaN) power management products, available for immediate shipment as part of an exclusive global distribution agreement with Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA.
EPC was the first firm to introduce enhancement-mode gallium nitride-on-silicon (eGaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) as power MOSFET replacements in applications such as point-of-load converters, Power over Ethernet (PoE), server and computer DC-DC converters, LED lighting, cell phones, RF transmission, solar micro-inverters, and class-D audio amplifiers with device performance many times greater than the best silicon power MOSFETs.
"Gallium nitride shows tremendous promise within the semiconductor space, as the power density benefits over silicon provide a unique opportunity for designers," says Mark Zack, VP, global semiconductor product at Digi-Key. "For the past three years, Digi-Key has partnered with EPC as the exclusive distributor of their GaN power management products," he adds. "Through this joint venture, both companies are well positioned to continue to provide innovative GaN power management solutions."
New eGaN products are being released frequently, from the EPC2016 and EPC2018 power transistors, to the EPC9017 development board. EPC has also released the EPC800x family of high-speed, high-performance products that are blurring the line between power and RF transistors. For designers interested in evaluating the new EPC800x family of devices, EPC has released the EPC9027 development board, which features the EPC8007 device and the LM5113 gate driver IC in a half-bridge configuration. In addition, on 11 October, EPC is participating in a live Google Hangout with Digi-Key, discussing the newest additions to the product portfolio.
"Digi-Key makes it easy for engineers to develop state-of-the-art power conversion systems with our enhancement-mode GaN transistors as replacements for their less efficient silicon transistors," says EPC's co-founder & CEO Alex Lidow. "Their ability to support our customers from prototype to production has been invaluable as the adoption rate of our pioneering technology continues to grow," he adds. "Digi-Key's innovative marketing capabilities reinforce our efforts."
