Transphorm Develops Two New GaN Power Chips

PowerAmerica has announced that thanks to its funding, California-based Transphorm has developed two new products: a bilateral switch which will enable  two to four times part count reduction and loss reduction; and a 900V GaN HEMT, which will enable increased energy efficiency.

The products are used to convert power in applications such as power supplies, solar inverters, AC-AC converters, industrial converters and electric vehicles.

Backed by $70 million from the US Department of Energy over five years, PowerAmerica is working to accelerate the adoption of advanced semiconductor components made with SiC and GaN into a wide range of products and systems.

Transphorm already has several GaN products on the market in the 650V range, which have helped to dispel doubts about the reliability and manufacturability of GaN. Previously, though, 900V GaN was not thought possible. While Transphorm had set a roadmap target to develop the higher node, Transphorm’s partnership with Power America enabled them to focus specifically on the higher node 900V GaN devices.

“The fact that PowerAmerica provided 50 percent of the funding for this project allowed us to focus on it as a roadmap item and develop streamlined technology – and offer first engineering samples with a datasheet – within a year,” said Transphorm co-founder and COO, Primit Parikh. “PowerAmerica helped to get us to the next level with our product.”

Primit added: “Working with PowerAmerica, we were able to leverage our strong baseline of industry’s highest reliability-highest quality GaN to improve existing technologies and get them closer to product commercialisation. PowerAmerica helped accelerate and risk reduce our roadmaps of these advanced devices.”

Transphorm has preliminary samples released to select customers, and is continuing to focus on broader product release.