Navitas Semiconductor Inc of El Segundo, CA, USA has launched its first products, which are claimed to be the industry's first gallium nitride (GaN) power ICs.
Navitas was founded in 2013, and in 2014 investment firm MalibuIQ licensed the GaN power electronics technology from HRL Laboratories LLC. Navitas raised $15.1m in equity financing in July 2015.
Using a proprietary 'AllGaN' process design kit (PDK) to monolithically integrate 650V GaN power field-effect transistors (FETs) and GaN logic and driver circuits enables 10-100x higher switching frequency than existing silicon circuits, making power electronics smaller, lighter and lower cost, says Navitas. A new generation of high-frequency, energy-efficient converters is hence being enabled for smartphone and laptop chargers, OLED TVs, LED lighting, solar inverters, wireless charging devices and datacenters.
"GaN has tremendous potential to displace silicon in the power electronics market given its inherent high-speed, high-efficiency capabilities as a power FET," says chief technology officer & chief operating officer Dan Kinzer. "Previously, that potential was limited by the lack of equally high-performance circuits to drive the GaN FETs quickly and cost effectively. Navitas has solved this remaining challenge to unlock the full potential of the power GaN market. With monolithic integration of GaN drive and logic circuits with GaN power FETs, the industry now has a path to cost-effective, easy-to-use, high-frequency power system designs," he adds.
"The last time power electronics experienced a dramatic improvement in density, efficiency and cost was in the late 70s when silicon MOSFETs replaced bipolar transistors, enabling a transition from linear regulators to switching regulators," says CEO Gene Sheridan. "A 10x improvement in density, 3x reduction in power losses and 3x lower cost resulted a short time thereafter. A similar market disruption is about to occur in which GaN power ICs will enable low-frequency, silicon-based power systems to be replaced by high-frequency GaN with dramatic improvements in density, efficiency and cost."
Navitas is introducing its AllGaN platform and GaN Power ICs in a keynote presentation 'Breaking Speed Limits with GaN Power ICs' on 21 March at the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC 2016) in Long Beach, CA, USA.
