New Industry Products

Monolithic GaN Half Bridge Enables 85% Efficient 12V-to-1.8V PoLs

June 04, 2017 by Jeff Shepard

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has announced the EPC2111, 30V enhancement-mode monolithic GaN transistor half bridge. By integrating two eGaN® power FETs into a single device, interconnect inductances and the interstitial space needed on the PCB are eliminated. This increases both efficiency (especially at higher frequencies) and power density, while reducing assembly costs to the end user's power conversion system. The EPC2111 is designed for high frequency 12 V to point-of-load (PoL) dc-dc conversion.

The EPC2111 GaN half bridge offers power systems designers a solution that increases efficiency for complete overall point-of-load system applications to over 85% at 14A when switching at 5MHz and over 80% when switching at 10MHz and converting from 12V to 1.8V.

Each device within the EPC2111 half-bridge component has a voltage rating of 30V. The upper FET has a typical RDS(on) of 14mΩ, and the lower FET has a typical RDS(on) of 6mΩ. The EPC2111 comes in a chip-scale package for improved switching speed and thermal performance, and is only 3.5 mm x 1.5 mm for increased power density.

A primary application for this device is for notebook and tablet computing. The power conversion circuitry in these systems occupy nearly half of the space and define the height of the motherboard. The high frequency capability of GaN reduces the size required for power conversion and thus will drive significant size reductions of next generation mobile computing.

The EPC2111 monolithic half-bridge price for 1K units is $1.62 each and available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key.