Date: 02/06/2021

GAN FET based 1000 Watt demo board from EPC offer high power density

EPC Has made available a GaN FETs based DC/DC converter demonstration board EPC9149 rated to handle a power of 1000 Watts, while converting 48 V DC input to 12 V DC output. Fitted with a 100V EPC2218 and 40 V EPC2024 GaN FETs.

Along with the improvement in power efficiency and speed, the significant advantage of gallium nitride switching devices is reduction of the power supply unit size.

EPC says this demo board is of size DOSA-standard 1/8th brick format measuring only 58.4 mm by 22.9 mm. To design same power supply using silicon switching devices, it takes around the size of 1/4th brick format. The total thickness of the converter without heatsink is only 10 mm. To make it simple for a power supply designer to easily replicate this design, all supporting materials for this board including schematic, bills of materials, and Gerber files are available on the EPC website.

EPC eGaN FETs used in this board operate at switching frequency of 1 MHz, and they are 1/3rdthe size of silicon MOSFETs of matching on-resistance. The EPC9149 board features four 100 V rated EPC2218 eGaN FETs for the primary rectification, and eight 40 V rated EPC2024 eGaN FETs for the secondary synchronous rectification. The board also features a 4 mm x 4 mm Microchip dsPIC33CKMP102T-I/M6 for flexibility, configuration, communications, and programmability.

The power supply board operate from an i/p voltage between 36-60 V and delivers up to 83.3 A load current. The peak efficiency from 48 V to 12 V is 98% and the full load efficiency, at 12 V when delivering 1 Kw, is 97%.The highest temperature in steady state operation at maximum load with 400 LFM airflow is 88°C, which relates to a maximum junction temperature of 95°C.

“eGaN FETs and integrated circuits increase power density for 48 V to 12 V converters and address data center application demands for higher power in a small size,” said Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. “The use of a Microchip digital controller allows flexibility for programming and configuration of the EPC9149 demonstration board.”

EPC9149 demonstration board is priced at $381.60 each and is available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key at http://www.digikey.com/Suppliers/us/Efficient-Power-Conversion.page?lang=en