Power converters are a fundamental part of all electronic devices and today’s market is demanding always more and more efficient power conversion.
The increase in efficiency leads to increased power density, reduced thermal losses and possibly reduced solution size of the system (and consequently, cost). Efficient and highly power-dense conversion is enabled in particular by one emerging non-silicon technology, used to realise power switches, that recently entered the broad market: gallium nitride (GaN). Thanks to the properties mentioned above, the industry showed rapidly increasing interest in GaN transistors for switch mode power supplies (SMPS) applications.
Some of the most important applications for GaN SMPS are 48 V automotive power distribution systems, class D audio amplifiers, solar optimiser and, in general, applications where high performance and small solution size are required.