EPC Announces Point-of-Load development board
Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) has introduced the EPC9059 half-bridge development board for high current, high frequency point-of-load (POL) applications using eGaN ICs to reduce power conversion size.
The EPC9059 development board has a 30V maximum device voltage with a 50A maximum output current. In this application two 30V EPC2100 eGaN ICs operating in parallel with a single onboard gate driver to achieve higher output currents. GaN devices have superior current sharing capability compared to silicon MOSFETs, making them more attractive for parallel operation.
The total system efficiency of this board operating with 12V input to 1V output with a switching frequency of 1 MHz peaks near 90 percent, according to EPC. It runs with natural convection and no heatsink up to 32A, and at heavy load condition of 40A showed a 2.5 percent efficiency advantage over silicon based DrMOS solutions, which translates to an almost 20 percent reduction in total system power loss.
EPC says that the board demonstrates how eGaN technology enables smaller size, higher efficiency, and higher power density at the higher frequencies and higher currents required in next generation point-of-load converters.
