GaN Power Switches with Topside Cooling Simplify PCB Design
GaN Systems Inc. today announced new topside cooling technology in its wide range of high-power enhancement-mode devices. Topside cooling enables engineers to use conventional, well-understood PCB cooling techniques when incorporating GaN Systems' market-leading semiconductors into their latest designs for products such as inverters, UPS, hybrid electric vehicles/electric vehicles, high voltage DC-DC conversion and consumer products such as TVs.
GaN Systems’ GaN power transistors are based on its proprietary Island Technology® - the die consist of islands rather than traditional fingers, which brings significant advantages in terms of better current handling, lower inductance, scaling, isolation and thermal management, as well as enabling smaller die and lowering cost. GaN Systems’ enhancement-mode devices with current ratings ranging from 8A to 250A are delivered in its proprietary GaNPX™ packaging: the die is embedded within a laminate construction and a series of galvanic processes replace conventional techniques such as clips, wire bonds and moulding compounds.
These near-chipscale high power switching transistors are now packaged to be cooled via the topside of the chip using a heat sink or fan – conventional techniques that are well-understood and familiar to design engineers who may be unfamiliar with using GaN devices or using them for the first time.
GaN transistors can also be cooled from the bottom surface of the die through conduction to the PCB. GaN Systems is the first company to have developed and brought a comprehensive product range of devices with current ratings from 8A to 250A to the global market – its Island Technology® die design, combined with its extremely low inductance and thermally efficient GaNPX™ packaging and Drive Assist technology means the company’s GaN transistors offer a 40-fold improvement in switching and conduction performance over traditional silicon MOSFETs and IGBTs.
