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Jason Yan 阎金光 Senior Technical Training Manager, Power Integrations 资深技术培训经理，Power Integrations |
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讲师简介 / Speaker Bio 阎金光毕业于哈尔滨工程大学电子工程专业，早期工作于中国科学院沈阳科学仪器研制中心，从事线性及半桥开关电源产品的研发。2001年加入Power Integrations，作为高级技术应用支持工程师致力于开关电源IC的推广及应用工作。在对客户产品研发、生产提供技术支持的过程当中积累了丰富的现场及应用技术知识。目前工作于Power Integrations圣何塞总部，主要负责Power Integrations 产品技术培训及市场推广工作，对AC/DC开关电源设计及应用有较深入的理解和研究。 摘要 / Abstract As the world’s decarbonization efforts expand to a forecasted annual investment of $5 Trillion per year by 2030 [source: IEC-International Electrotechnical Commission], the role of power semiconductors and associated systems has grown in importance for power generation, transmission and consumption, covering applications such as wind and solar, electric transportation of all kinds, datacenters, lighting and consumer products. Over the last 50 years the technology for high voltage, high current power switches morphed from thyristors to IGBTs and is now transitioning to so called “wide bandgap” materials – the most commercially consequential of which is silicon carbide. But in addition to being important, silicon carbide is also relatively easy to make and a rather obvious ploy for big semiconductor companies. Consequentially, a very large amount of capacity has come online over the last 5 years and the world is oversupplied with the material. It’s likely that the world-wide return on investment in silicon carbide will not improve because new technologies are snapping at its heels – gallium nitride is one such disruptive technology. Not only does GaN have better performance than SiC at a performance level, it’s also cheaper to make because it does not require high temperature processing and so the equipment needed is cheaper and the foundry electric bill is much lower. GaN’s one weakness has been its breakdown voltage performance, which limited the technology to consumer products and mains-power applications such as cellphones chargers, TVs and appliance bias supplies. Until now. Power Integrations is on an accelerated R&D path to replace SiC with high voltage GaN, has released 750V, 900V, 1250V and now 1700V GaN based products in recent years, and hinted at even higher voltage GaN R&D in progress. This paper explains at a high level what GaN’s capabilities are vs. SiC and IGBT and proposes a commercial roadmap for the technology into the future. |
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