Cambridge, UK – Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD), the fabless, clean-tech semiconductor company that develops energy-efficient GaN-based power devices that make sustainable electronics simpler to design and implement, today announced that Inventchip, a leading provider of SiC power devices and IC solutions headquartered in Shanghai, has successfully demo’d a 2.5 kW GaN-based CCM totem-pole PFC reference design using CGD’s ICeGaN® gallium nitride ICs. A key feature is ease-of use. ICeGaN ICs integrate interface circuitry and protection on the same GaN die as the HEMT. Therefore, any standard driver IC can be used. The Inventchip IVCC1104 totem pole PFC controller IC is also simple to use with no programming required. It offers optimized AC zero-crossing control, low THD and high robustness against AC disturbance.
DI CHEN | DIRECTOR, TECHNICAL MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, CGD
Inventchip had an existing 2.5kW TPPFC reference design based on its controller and gate drivers using SiC MOSFETs in TO-247 packages. To evaluate the performance of GaN instead, Inventchip designed a TO-247 adapter board using our P2 25mΩ ICeGaN ICs and the ICeGaN design works perfectly without any modification of their circuits. It has demonstrated that the ICeGaN can significantly shorten the learning curve and allow engineers to bring new product faster to market
DR. ZHONG YE |CTO , INVENTCHIP
“By using a TO247-4 adapter board to solder on a DFN-packaged ICeGaN device for a quick test on our EVM, despite the relatively long gate drive path and the extended drive power supply trace, the board was powered up successfully at the first shot with clean switching waveform. No abnormalities or shoot-through was observed from no-load to full-load conditions. The GaN’s performance is very impressive. The CGD GaN device has proven to be very noise-immune, user-friendly and highly efficient.”
Having proved its efficiency and power density in low power charger designs, GaN is now being adopted by makers of server and data centre PSUs, inverters, industrial brick DC/DC converters and LED drivers. Soon, EV inverter drives of over 100 kW are expected to transition to GaN too. ICeGaN technology is especially suitable at higher power levels because of its proven reliability and robustness.
