EPC’s Alex Lidow Discusses Why Power Electronics Industry Should Focus on GaN
Article By : Stephen Las Marias
EPC CEO Alex Lidow expects GaN power devices to replace silicon MOSFETs below 650V in new designs.
The power electronics industry has been dominated by metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) devices for almost 40 years for applications below 650V. But by the year 2000, MOSFETs had hit their theoretical performance limit and progress had slowed down as manufacturers focus on pricing.
According to Alex Lidow, CEO and Co-founder of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC), gallium nitride (GaN) devices have opened opportunities with technical performances that are an order of magnitude higher and better than their aging MOSFET ancestors.
“This has enabled users to significantly reduce costs, improve efficiency, shrink product size, offer new capabilities, and gain market share against their competitors,” says Lidow.
EPC, which Lidow co-founded with Jianjun “Joe” Cao and Robert Beach, is the pioneer in enhancement-mode GaN- (eGaN) based power management semiconductors. eGaN FETs and ICs provide significantly higher performance than the best silicon power MOSFETs in applications such as DC-DC converters, remote sensing technology (lidar), motor drives for e-mobility, robotics, drones, and low-cost satellites.
Figure 1: EPC Co-founder and CEO Alex Lidow.
“GaN is becoming the technology of choice for progressive companies that are eager to remain at the forefront of contributing to the semiconductor industry,” says Lidow in an interview with EE Times Asia. “We started production of our first GaN family of devices in March 2010 before anybody else in this field. We pioneered enhancement-mode technology and GaN power ICs, which were first introduced in 2014.”
EPC has written two textbooks that mark the milestones of GaN development in real-world applications, GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion and GaN Power Devices and Applications.
“Both are widely used in universities as textbooks for engineering students who are the next generation of power electronics experts,” Lidow says.
Why focus on GaN
Lidow expects GaN power devices to replace silicon MOSFETs below 650V in new designs. He notes that many companies in applications such as e-bikes, drones, server power systems, fast phone chargers, solar electronics, audio, and space electronics have already started that transition and replacement track.
“The key reasons for using GaN devices in all new designs are that it is more cost effective, smaller, higher performance, and more reliable,” Lidow explains. “Companies delaying their conversion to GaN are the more conservative power users who will wait until they see a threat from their competitor’s use of GaN to gain further market share. Usually, at that point, it is too late to catch up.”
Figure 2: One of EPC’s goals is to make GaN power devices that are higher performance and lower cost than silicon power devices.
EPC has focused on the under-400V market for GaN devices where, according to Lidow, speed and size are most important. “Our mission is to make GaN power devices that are higher performance and lower cost than silicon power devices. We are succeeding, and we are the leader,” he notes.
Most recently, the company has expanded its family of footprint-compatible ePower Stage ICs to boost power density and simplify design for different power requirements. This helps designers with devices that are easier to design, layout, assemble, save space on the PCB, and increase efficiency. These new devices can help designers make lighter and more precise BLDC motor drives, higher efficiency 48V DC-DC converters, higher fidelity Class-D audio systems, and other industrial and consumer applications.
According to Lidow, among the fastest growing applications for EPC’s GaN products are solar and enterprise computing.
“Both use 100V–200V GaN devices,” he says, adding that GaN devices are more efficient than MOSFETs in said applications.
“In solar application, GaN device is more reliable than MOSFETs and can easily demonstrate capability to reliably operate at least 35 years in rooftop installations,” Lidow explains. “In enterprise computing, GaN devices enable extreme improvements in power density. Three customers—Flex, Cyntec/Delta, and MPS—are all producing 48V–12V DC-DC converters for servers that have power densities over 4,000W/in3. That is more than double of the performance of a state-of-the-art device a year ago.”
GaN ecosystem rapidly emerging
Yole Group expects the power GaN market to be worth $2 billion in 2027. For the datacom/telecom industry, the market research firm projects the power GaN market growth to be at 69% CAGR during the forecast period.
Figure 3: Yole expects the power GaN market to be worth $2 billion in 2027. (Source: Yole Développement)
“The ecosystem for GaN products has emerged quickly,” notes Lidow. “First came driver ICs such as the LM5113, LMG1205, LMG1210, UP1966E, ADuM4221A, and MP8699B, just to name a few. Now, there are controllers for a wide variety of applications such as synchronous rectification (UCD7138, NCP4305/6/8A), and buck-boost converters and motor drives (dsPIC33CK32MP102, RT6190, NCP8111, LTC8000, TPS404000, ISL8117A).” He adds that new controllers are also being introduced regularly.
“GaN devices will certainly replace MOSFETs for voltages below 650V,” Lidow reiterates. “The only question is, ‘how quickly?’”
Of course, there will always be challenges. Lidow says it is driving the cost down so that customers can get even greater benefits from GaN’s higher performance and reliability advantages.
The Ascent of GaN
GaN-on-Si planar technology allows the integration of the power section with the control in the same die, thereby opening up significant performance opportunities with higher performance by an order of magnitude that is much better than their aging MOSFET ancestor. This has enabled users to significantly reduce costs, improve efficiency, shrink product size, offer new capabilities, and gain market share against their competitors.
EPC CEO Alex Lidow will be discussing this and more in his presentation “The Ascent of GaN” at the upcoming PowerUP Asia virtual conference and exhibition on May 24-26.
For more information or to register, click here.
“The speed of transition will depend on the cost effectiveness of the GaN product as compared with silicon,” he says. “Many customers will wait until their competition starts taking away market share because of their GaN-based products. However, if they wait that long, it will be too late to catch up.”
Stephen Las Marias is the editor of EETimes Asia. He can be reached at stephen.lasmarias@aspencore.com.
