Cambridge Electronics Inc announces GaN transistors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) spinout Cambridge Electronics Inc. (CEI) has announced a line of GaN transistors and power electronic circuits that it says could to cut energy usage in data centres, electric cars, and consumer devices by 10 to 20 percent.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change electronics and to really make an impact on how energy is used in the world," says CEI co-founder Tomás Palacios, an MIT associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science who co-invented the technology.
CEI is currently using its transistors to develop laptop power adaptors that are approximately 1.5 cubic inches in volume - claimed to be the smallest ever made.
Among the other applications for the transistors, Palacios says, is better power electronics for data centres.
The development of CEI's proprietary GaN technology started more than nine years ago at MIT and it is now protected by more than 20 patents, with many more in the pipeline.
According to the company the technology offers many advantages including 100 percent compatibility with Silicon CMOS fabrication; Normally-on and Normally-off GaN transistors on the same chip; tunable threshold voltage; gate input voltages compatible with standard Si technology; and TO-220 and PQFN packaging available.
