Gallium Nitride (GaN)

CoolGaN™ - the new power paradigm

Today’s demand for high-performance and low-cost power conversion products is driven by consumer expectation for longer battery life, faster charging for their phones, electric vehicles (EVs) development, or power tools. Consumers want faster data communication along with powerful artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, delivered at lower cost from the vast network of hyperscale datacenters, telecom server farms, and upcoming 5G communication towers integrated into our everyday living environment.

At the heart of achieving high performance, as well as lowering the up-front and operating costs for these applications, is advanced power electronics that process electric utility voltage through multiple stages to ultimately power our devices efficiently and cost effectively. For many years, this progression has been enabled by continuous innovation resulting in families of high and low-voltage silicon power transistors that never fail to surprise us with further improvements generation after generation.

However, while power semiconductors have historically used silicon substrates, silicon semi-conductors are limited when it comes to high voltages. For this reason, other materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) are increasingly being used instead of silicon. GaN technology companies have developed innovative gallium nitride (GaN) technology that offers higher switching frequencies while keeping losses at very low levels. These developments in GaN technology by semiconductor manufacturers offer longer battery life and faster charging for mobile phones, electric vehicles (EVs), and power tools, as well as faster data communication capabilities.

Infineon’s innovative GaN power technology includes 600V CoolGaN™ GIT HEMT technology. HEMT, which stands for high electron mobility transistor, is formed by bringing two structurally dissimilar substrates together to form a heterojunction transistor to promote higher electron mobility and allowing stable switching during GaN HEMT operation.

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a wide bandgap semiconductor material in the same category as silicon carbide (SiC). If it were possible to grow large-diameter single crystal GaN to make wafers for processing, vertical transistors could be fabricated in a similar way as SiC MOSFETs are made today. However, gallium nitride properties make growing GaN substrates prohibitively difficult. Instead, gallium nitride chips can be made by using readily available, low-cost silicon wafers as a substrate, and growing GaN epitaxially so it can be fabricated into lateral transistors known as high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs).

Since GaN HEMT transistors improve power density and are capable of high-speed switching, they are ideal for semiconductor devices that require fast turn on and turn off speeds and enables higher efficiency and reliability.

Gallium nitride semiconductors are used for power supply and conversion for a broad range of applications. For example, Infineon’s GaN technology solutions offer benchmark efficiency and maximize power density for telecommunication infrastructure development. Additionally, using Infineon’s GaN transistors for efficient power conversion lowers operating expenses as the gallium nitride power supply footprint is reduced while providing the highest solution robustness.

As with all of Infineon’s power transistors, the gallium nitride power transistor CoolGaN™ series is supported by a broad offering of single- and dual-channel isolated and non-isolated EiceDRIVER™ gate driver ICs.

Infineon’s GaN EiceDRIVER™ ICs, have been developed to achieve maximum performance in high-voltage CoolGaN™ gallium nitride transistor designs, and thanks to their ease of use, shorten time-to-market. This family of gate driver ICs is recommended for high-power and hard-switching applications (e.g. totem-pole PFC). Standard gate driver ICs (2EDF7275K, 2EDF7275F, 1EDB7275F, 1EDN7550B) can also be employed with CoolGaN™ gallium nitride transistors as a compact and cost-effective solution for soft-switching applications (e.g. LLC).  

By combining the industry’s most reliable GaN and driver technology, Infineon’s CoolGaN™ Integrated Power Stage (IPS) 600V is one of the most reliable and high performing solutions of all GaN HEMTs on the market. Additionally, Infineon offers a full range of gate drive solutions for 600V CoolGaN™ power semiconductors.

There are a number of technologies that implement gallium nitride applications, such as telecom/datacom, server SMPS, and wireless charging. The extremely efficient and compact design of gallium nitride electronics sets new standards for high quality, energy efficiency, and ease of use.  

By manufacturing GaN power transistors on Si substrates for switching applications, Infineon offers highly reliable and efficient solutions for GaN-on-Si power technology devices and applications.

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Infineon's CoolGaN™ solution is what you need to elevate your devices to the next level. The outstanding reliability, high performance and robustness of CoolGaN™ adds a significant value to a broad variety of systems across many applications such as server, hyperscale data centers, telecom, wireless charging, adapter and charger, SMPS and audio. To make CoolGaN™ switches even more easy to use and easy to design-in, we offer dedicated GaN EiceDRIVER™ ICs.

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive first-hand information to help you in your daily work with our GaN devices and GaN EiceDRIVER™ parts. Explore the world of CoolGaN™ and enter a new era of efficiency and reliability!

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Infineon Developer Community is available 24x7 for you to connect and network with engineers across the globe. Get help from Infineon support engineers, and expert members to solve your design challenges anytime, from anywhere, in any topic, and in your preferred language.

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Driving solutions for GaN

In this paper various driving solutions are discussed, ranging from the standard RC-coupled driver to a new differential drive concept utilizing dedicated gate driver ICs. In half-bridge topologies, a hybrid configuration combining isolated and non-isolated drivers could be an exciting alternative. Practical application examples and circuit schematics complement the paper.

For more information on how to drive GaN click here.

Videos

Making GaN fit for industrial applications

In the last years, GaN has been hyped as a material that could replace silicon in various applications. But is it good enough for industrial applications? We take a closer look.

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Video CoolGaN™ - the new power paradigm

CoolGaN™ the new power paradigm. Ultimate efficiency and reliability. This is what Infineon’s gallium nitride CoolGaN™ e-mode HEMTs offer to you.

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Image A new era in power electronics with Infineon's CoolGaN™

Dr. Gerald Deboy, Senior Principal Power Semiconductors and System Engineering, gives insights into CoolGaN™

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video image Infineon’s GaN solution – easier to use GaN than ever before

Thomas Schafbauer (Vice President Business Line ACDC) presents the wide market launch of CoolGaN™ at the electronica 2018.

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Trainings

How to drive Infineon’s CoolGaN™ GIT HEMTs
Drive_CoolGaN_GIT_HEMTs

In this eLearning you will learn about the similarities and differences of GaN power transistors compared to their silicon counterparts.

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Infineon picture eLearning CoolGaN - GaN HEMTts - Why are they used where and when

CoolGaN™ - Gallium Nitride Transistors are the power devices with the best performance available on the market. Get to know more about this technology.

 

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In this training, we will show you Infineon’s CoolGaN™ - GaN HEMTs methodology.

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