IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2016 - 4

From the Editor

by Ashok Bindra

tapping the Benefits of Monolithic
gallium nitride Power Integrated circuits

W

hile IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Society (PELS)
President Braham Ferreira
reminds us this quarter of the
upcoming vote on the IEEE 2030 Ini-
tiative, which is proposing changes
to the IEEE constitution and the
board structure, he also shares some
of his own thoughts on the future of
PELS as a volunteer Society.
Despite improvements in operat-
ing voltages and reliability of gallium
nitride (GaN)-based power transis-
tors, the adoption has been rather
slow for several reasons, with key
among them being marginal improve-
ment in performance in comparison
to silicon at higher cost. Startup Navi-
tas Semiconductor plans to address
that problem with a monolithic ap-
proach. The nascent company has
developed a GaN power integrated
circuit (IC) where drive, logic, and
enha ncement-mo de G a N f ield -
effect transistors (FETs) are mono-
lithically integrated on the same
si l icon d ie. Wit h 6 -i n (150-mm)
production-quality GaN-on-silicon
wafers available for e-mode lateral
GaN FETs, Navitas promises to de-
liver cost-effective GaN power ICs
and plans to migrate to 8-in (200-
mm) wafers in a few years.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2585473
Date of publication: 7 September 2016

4

IEEE PowEr ElEctronIcs MagazInE

In the first feature article in this
feature article, "Inductive Power Trans-
issue, "Monolithic HV GaN Power
fer for Electric Vehicle Charging,"
ICs," authors Dan Kinzer and Stephen
authors Roman Bosshard and Prof.
Oliver of Navitas first discuss the vir-
Johann W. Kolar of the Power Electron-
tues of the integrated GaN power IC
ic Systems Laboratory, ETH Zurich,
and then argue that monolithically
present de sign tradeoffs between
integrated GaN power ICs will ac-
IPT and state-of-the-art conductive
celerate the adoption of GaN power
EV battery chargers for EV charging.
devices by delivering
Besides highlighting
an easy-to-use, high-
desig n tradeof fs,
performance solu-
the article also sug-
With electric vehicle
tion at cost-effective
gests some solutions
sales rapidly rising in
prices. To demon-
to overcome these
the developed world,
strate the benefits
challenges.
inductive power
of GaN power ICs,
Likewise, the third
the article presents
feature
article, "Power
transfer for electric
a 150-W boundary
Module
Integration,"
vehicle charging has
conduction mode
by David Cooper of
been gaining traction
boost power factor
Sumida Technolo-
lately.
correction circ u it
gies shows how an in-
with universal ac in-
ductor can be used as
put and 400-V, 0.27-A
a package to obtain
dc output, followed by an LLC dc-dc
significant improvement in efficien-
(400-19 Vdc). Built using a two-layer
cy while keeping the package size
printed circuit board, the ac to 19 V
small. Additionally, this article also
supply requires no heat sink and of-
reveals enhancement in thermal
fers a total full load efficiency of
performance achieved using higher
>93% at 120 Vac and >94% at 220 Vac
thermal conductivity of metal com-
posite material as opposed to epoxy.
and a power factor of >0.995 at 150 W.
Additionally, manufacturing costs are
With electric vehicle (EV) sales
reduced by simplifying the manu-
rapidly rising in the developed world,
facturing process.
inductive power transfer (IPT) for EV
The "Patent Reviews" column ex-
charging has been gaining traction
amines steps for patenting software,
lately. However, further improvements
and the "Entrepreneur Viewpoint"
are needed for the widespread adop-
column investigates conditions under
tion of the technology. In the second

z	September 2016



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