EPC Introduces Wide-Input, 20A GaN-Based Buck Converter Demo Board
Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) has introduced the EPC9118, a fully functional buck power conversion demonstration circuit.
The board is a 30-60 V input to 5V, 20A maximum output current, 400kHz buck converter. It features the EPC2001 and EPC2015 enhancement-mode (eGaN) FETs, as well as the LTC3891 buck controller. According to EPC, the design is suited distributed power solutions in telecom, industrial, and medical applications.
The EPC9118 board contains the complete power stage (including eGaN FETs, driver, inductor and input/output caps) in a 1in x 1.3in layout to demonstrate the performance that can be achieved using the eGaN FETs and a traditional MOSFET controller together. The demonstration board is 2.5in square ini total and contains a fully closed loop buck converter with optimised control loop.
Despite its small size, the board has peak power efficiency greater than 93 percent capable of delivering 20 amps at 5 volts with a 36 V input. To assist the design engineer, the EPC9118 demonstration board is easy to set up and contains various probe points to facilitate simple waveform measurement and efficiency calculation.
