News

Transphorm’s 900V GaN Switch Assisted by PowerAmerica Money

April 19, 2017 by Jeff Shepard

In part due to funding assistance from PowerAmerica, California-based Transphorm has developed what may be the first offerings of their kind in the market. The first is a bilateral switch which will enable two-times to four-times part count reduction and loss reduction, while the second is a 900V GaN HEMT, which will enable increased energy efficiency. The products are used to convert power in applications such as power supplies, solar inverters, ac-ac converters, industrial converters and electric vehicles.

Transphorm already has several GaN products on the market in the 650V range (in fact, its second generation 650V GaN FET recently became the industry’s first GaN solution to earn automotive qualification), which have helped to dispel doubts about the reliability and manufacturability of GaN. Previously, though, 900V GaN was not thought possible. While Transphorm had set a roadmap target to develop the higher node, Transphorm’s partnership with Power America enabled them to focus specifically on the higher node 900V GaN devices.

“The fact that PowerAmerica provided 50 percent of the funding for this project allowed us to focus on it as a roadmap item and develop streamlined technology – and offer first engineering samples with a datasheet – within a year,” said Transphorm Co-founder and COO, Primit Parikh. “PowerAmerica helped to get us to the next level with our product.”

Primit added: “Working with PowerAmerica, we were able to leverage our strong baseline of industry’s highest reliability-highest quality GaN to improve existing technologies and get them closer to product commercialization. PowerAmerica helped accelerate and risk reduce our roadmaps of these advanced devices.”

Transphorm has preliminary samples released to select customers, and is continuing to focus on broader product release.