News

150W GaN-Based AC-DC Reference Design Over 95% Efficient

June 01, 2017 by Jeff Shepard

Navitas Semiconductor announced the availability of a 150W ac-dc reference design utilizing the company's industry-leading GaN power ICs. At over 21 W/in3 and at over 95% efficiency, the NVE021A is more than 2x smaller than typical commercial designs and 40% smaller than previous best-in-class today.

The design can be adapted over a power range of 85- 500-W to enable a new class of converters to address ultra-thin LED TVs, fast-charging laptop adapters, high-density gaming systems, all-in-one PCs and any other systems seeking high-density or high efficiency power solutions.

Navitas GaN Power ICs enable high-frequency switching to shrink passive components. Soft-switching critical-conduction mode (CrCM) PFC and LLC dc-dc stages operate at working frequencies up to 300kHz (600kHz during start-up, burst mode) – the fastest-possible speed provided by off-the-shelf controller ICs available today.

The NVE021A reference design (150W, ac to 12Vdc) is immediately available direct from Navitas at a price of $465 each, which includes a comprehensive user guide / test report with all schematic and layout design files, plus bill of material.

“Navitas GaN Power ICs enable breakthrough adapter performance in small size and high efficiency with simple, practical and economical designs” explained Stephen Oliver, the company’s Vice-President of Sales & Marketing. “Silicon-based designs are slow, bulky and heavy. This reference design is the first in a series that will demonstrate how new GaN power ICs can increase frequencies 5x or more with efficiencies of 95%, enabling a 3-5x increase in power densities for a broad range of AC-DC applications.”