GaN Systems Cup: 2020 Winners
Thirty-five teams entered the company's sixth annual competition and 14 made it into the finals to compete in the final live round
GaN Systems has announced the winners of the sixth annual 'GaN Systems Cup' China Power Supply Society (CPSS) design competition at an awards ceremony at the CPSS Conference on December 21, 2020.
The competition challenges top engineering teams from China’s leading universities to design new or improved power electronics systems using GaN power transistors. Six engineering teams were awarded for their GaN-based AC/DC converter designs.
This year’s challenge was to design a high efficiency and high-power density bidirectional AC/DC converter using GaN Systems 650V GS66502B transistor. System technical requirements and parameters included: 400W rated output power, 220VAC input voltage and 300-400VDC output voltage while achieving 94 percent efficiency in both directions at full load, no greater than 30W/cm3 power density, closed-loop control, over-current and over-voltage protection function, and run continuously for 30 minutes under natural cooling at 25degC. Designs were judged on meeting the design criteria, functionality during the test day, ingenuity, and quality of presentation.
Thirty-five teams entered the competition and 14 made it into the finals to compete in the final live round. Six winners were announced at the ceremony. A 20,000 RMB prize (~$3k) was given to the grand prize winner and 10,000 RMB (~$1.5k) to the two first prize winners, and 5,000 RMB (~$775) to the three second prize winners.
The grand prize was awarded to Heilongjiang University of Science & Technology. The team presented the best performance and highest power density design for the bidirectional AC/DC converter.
Additional winners included a first prize awarded to a team from Shanghai Maritime University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and a second prize awarded to a team from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology, and Beijing Jiaotong University.
“Congratulations to the winners and to all the student teams that participated in the “GaN Systems Cup” competition. Now in our sixth year, we are continually astonished at the level of talent and enthusiasm for power electronics and in solving critical power systems challenges from young engineers,” says Paul Wiener, VP strategic marketing at GaN Systems.
