GaN Systems and Renesas Reduce Automotive DC/DC by 50%
October 19, 2022
News
OTTAWA, Canada – GaN Systems announced that the company’s power transistors are now powering Renesas Electronics’ new automotive 48V/12V Bidirectional DC/DC Converter to provide power density improvements. Renesas’ converter utilizes GaN Systems’ GS61008P, a 100V enhancement mode GaN-on-silicon power transistor designed to enable a 46% reduction in system size.
GaN is becoming increasingly popular in consumer electronics and is ideal for power conversion and battery charging for hybrid and electric vehicles. This makes GaN Systems’ power transistors ideal for use in Renesas’ new automotive solution, which is designed for 48V mild hybrid vehicles and electric motorcycles and requires high efficiency 48V/12V DC/DC converters.
GaN provides high switching frequency at high efficiency enabling smaller magnetics and smaller size. According to the company, GaN Systems’ GaN HEMTs provides a 50% smaller PCB area compared to Si-MOSFETs.
“Customers in automotive are constantly looking for improvements in power density and cost, and this design is another reflection that GaN delivers significant improvements in power density in a smaller, more efficient, and cost-effective design,” said Jim Witham, CEO of GaN Systems.
Benefits of the new 48V/12V Bidirectional DC/DC Converter include:
- 46% reduction of the PCB area by leveraging the switching capabilities of GaN Systems transistors—enabling a high-efficiency power converter with a high switching frequency of 500kHz. This allows the use of very small 1.3µH inductors, which leads to a decrease in size and weight.
- High efficiency over a wide range of loads. A combination of GaN with the automatic phase drop function achieves efficient power conversion even at low loads, exceeding 94% power efficiency over a wide load range of 400W to 3kW.
- The ISL78226 PWM controller is designed to eliminate the need for complicated DC/DC converter control software development.
- The half-bridge driver ISL78420/444 provides a cost-effective method of driving GaN transistors.
For more information, visit: https://gansystems.com
Tiera Oliver is the assistant managing editor at Embedded Computing Design. She is responsible for web content editing, product news, and story development. She also manages, edits, and develops content for ECD podcasts, including Embedded Insiders.
She utilizes her expertise in journalism and content management to oversee editorial content, coordinate with editors, and ensure high-quality output across web, print, and multimedia platforms. She manages diverse projects, assists in the production of digital magazines, and hosts company podcasts by conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders to deliver engaging and insightful discussions.
Tiera attended Northern Arizona University, where she received her bachelor's in journalism and political science. She was also a news reporter for the student-led newspaper, The Lumberjack.
