Wall chargers are among the first consumer application that uses GaN devices. The main advantage of moving from Si to GaN is to increase the device's operating frequency and thus decrease the charging time, size and weight of the components.
System Plus Consulting has issued a system-oriented analysis in their "GaN Chargers Comparison" report, which focuses on the impact of GaN die adoption in the latest wall charger designs and their performance.
In this report, System Plus Consulting presents a deep analysis and comparison of the first GaN-based chargers available on the market. The report analyzes the 61W PD Pioneer from RAVPower, the dual port, 24W PA-U50 from Aukey, the 45W Mu One from Made in Mind, and the 30W PowerPort Atom PD 1 from Anker.
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This report provides detailed bill of material and manufacturing supply chain for all the four chargers. It presents the technical choices made by the manufacturers and the impact of the choice of components on the charger design and cost. The report introduces the types of GaN-based devices used in every charger, then every single device design and technology are available in separate reports.
This report estimates the production cost of all the components of each charger, including plastic package, printed circuit boards, integrated circuits and passives in detail. It includes exhaustive technology and cost comparisons of materials, package assemblies and GaN based devices. A final comparison between Si-based and GaN-based chargers is also included.
System Plus Consulting has also released a report describing Power Integrations' technical choices from the device design up to the packaging in the just-released InnoSwitch™3 offline flyback switcher ICs. The report observes that the "long-expected first GaN-on-Sapphire die" has been integrated into a commercially-available device
The System Plus Consulting analysis observes that first GaN-on-Sapphire-based Power Integrated Circuit (IC) die has been found in the Wall-Charger PowerPort Atom PD1: A2017 from Anker. The die is co-packaged with three ICs constituting primary-side and secondary-side controllers in the SC1933C device.
The report comments, "To our great surprise, the power GaN HEMT was processed on a sapphire substrate which is a major breakthrough that we did not observe before in other power GaN HEMTs. The latter being generally processed on Silicon substrates.
This report presents a deep teardown analysis of the SC1933C. Detailed optical and Scanning Electron Microscope pictures and cross-sections with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis are included to reveal Power Integrations' technical choices at the microscopic level of the IC and HEMT designs.
The report provides an estimation of the production costs of the ICs, the HEMT and the package as well as the estimated selling price of the component. Finally, the report includes a comparison with the GaN-on-silicon HEMT from Navitas (used in the 61W PD Pioneer from RAVPower and the 45W Mu One from Made in Mind). This comparison highlights the differences in GaN die designs and manufacturing costs.
