STMicroelectronics has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake GaN-on-Si technology start-up Exagan (founded in 2014 with support from CEA-Leti and Soitec). Exagan’s expertise in epitaxy, product development and application know-how will broaden and accelerate ST’s power GaN roadmap and business for automotive, industrial and consumer applications. Exagan will continue to execute its product roadmap and will be supported by ST in the deployment of its products.

Closing of the acquisition remains subject to customary regulatory approvals from French authorities. The signed agreement also provides for the acquisition by ST of the remaining minority stake in Exagan 24 months after the closing of the acquisition of the majority stake. The transaction is funded with available cash.

“ST has built strong momentum in silicon carbide and is now expanding in another very promising compound material, gallium nitride, to drive adoption of the power products based on GaN by customers across the automotive, industrial and consumer markets,”

says ST’s president & CEO Jean-Marc Chery.

In power electronics, GaN-based devices provide high-frequency operation, with increased efficiency and higher power density compared with silicon-based transistors, leading to power savings and total system downsizing. GaN products can address a wide variety of applications such as power factor correction (PFC) and DC/DC converters in servers, telecom and industrial applications, on-board chargers for electric vehicle (EV) and DC-DC converters for automotive applications, as well personal electronics applications like power adaptors.

“The acquisition of a majority stake in Exagan is another step forward in strengthening our global technology leadership in power semiconductors and our long-term GaN roadmap, ecosystem and business,” says Chery. “It comes in addition to ongoing developments with CEA-Leti in Tours, France, and the recently-announced collaboration with TSMC.”

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Limited a power semiconductors and power ICs fabless company, today announced the release of 700V and 600V αMOS5™ Super Junction MOSFET families in SMD-type DFN5x6 and DFN8x8 packages. αMOS5 is AOS’ latest generation of high voltage MOSFET, targeting Quick Charger, Adapter, PC Power, Server, Industrial Power, Telecom, and Hyperscale Datacenter applications. […]

A report from Xiaomi contains the following statement: “this year, several manufacturers [of the same size as Xiaomi] will release GaN power adapters”. This was enough to launch suspicions of plans to release GaN based chargers for Samsung, Oppo or even Apple. Nothing is confirmed yet from none of these manufacturers.

The Xiaomi GaN charger uses gallium nitride (GaN) technology for Navitas semicondutors, according to IThome website. It comes with a USB Type-C interface that supports up to 65W fast-charge. It can deliver a full charge of the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro in 45 minutes. It comes in line with several Chinese of Taiwanese manufacturers of aftermarket accessories, which already have release GaN-based chargers in 2018 or 2019.

We will follow closely this news and will update this article accordingly

Sources: IThome.com, gizchina.com,

Infineon Technologies expand its silicon carbide (SiC) product portfolio with 650 V devices. Newly launched CoolSiC™ MOSFETs from Infineon is addressing applications like server, telecom and industrial SMPS, Solar energy systems, energy storage, UPS, motor drives as well as EV-charging.

The CoolSiC MOSFET 650 V devices are rated from 27 mΩ to 107 mΩ. They are available in classic TO-247 3-pin as well as TO-247 4-pin packages, which allows for even lower switching losses. As for all previously launched CoolSiC MOSFET products, the new family of 650 V devices are based on Infineon’s state-of-the-art trench semiconductor technology.

Availability

The CoolSiC MOSFET 650 V family comprises eight variants housed in two through hole TO-247 packages. They can be ordered now. Three dedicated gate-driver ICs will be available starting March 2020. 

Source

Siemens is integrating part of its Simatic Micro-Drive product line with GaN devices from GaNSystems.

“The Simatic Micro-Drive is an extremely versatile, seamless and safety integrated servo drive system that covers a wide range of applications in the extra-low voltage range for EC motors from 24 to 48 volts,”

said Christian Neugebauer, product manager of Simatic Micro-Drive, Siemens. “With the GaN Systems devices, we are now able to increase the efficiency of the drives. With GaN, Siemens can switch to a higher frequency, thereby enabling a faster motor response time compared with high voltage drive systems.” 

Recently, Siemens entered the low voltage drive market with the creation of their new Simatic Micro-Drive safety and extra-low voltage family. The integrated Simatic Micro-Drive system comes in two different housing sizes for motor outputs of between 100 and 1000 watts. The fundamental building block is the GaN power transistors made by GaN Systems. This 4-quadrant drive system can be either used with the integrated brake chopper on a power supply or directly in battery operation.

The servo drive system is suited to a wide range of diverse applications in moving, processing and positioning such as conveyor systems and stacker cranes, positioning of individual or multiple coordinated axes, shuttles for storage and retrieval machines or warehousing systems, automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) and medical technology.

Atom Power has unveiled the second generation of its technology of circuit breakers. The Generation 2 Atom Switch is now UL Listed to UL 489I — the standard listing for solid-state circuit breakers. In May 2019, the Generation 1 Atom Switch was the first of its kind Listed to UL 489I.

This new generation of Atom Power’s circuit breaker contains the company’s own proprietary SiC Power Modules, which doubles the performance as compared to the Generation 1 Atom Switch. Atom Power is the first company to use Wide Band Gap (WBG) semiconductors in commercially available solid state circuit breakers, and the only company to manufacture SiC semiconductor modules specifically for use in circuit protection. The SiC Power Modules — models SWXFT100CPM and SWXFT50CPM

By incorporating semiconductor power modules that we designed and manufactured ourselves, we have taken our technology to the next level

said Denis Kouroussis, co-founder and CTO of Atom Power

Atom Power’s product suite includes its digital circuit breakers (Atom Switches), distribution panels (Atom Panels) and software (Atom OS)

Transphorm as confirmed that AES Aircraft Elektro/Elektronik System GmbH has released its first 650 V GaN-based power supplies. The company’s newest Switch Mode Power Supplies are currently used by large CS-25 airplane manufacturers (e.g., Airbus A318-A321, A330, A340, A380 and Boeing B767, B787 VIP aircraft) and use GaN FETs to increase overall system efficiency by more than 10 percent compared to competitive Silicon-based power supply unites (PSUs).

The two GaN-based Switch Mode Power Supplies are the PS250X 500 W system and the PS6120 1200 W system. Both products support a 96-130 VAC/360 Hz – 800 Hz input voltage with a 28 VDC continuous power output at 15 amps for the 500 W system and 42 amps for the 1200 W system.

The flagship 500 W PS250X is the industry’s first passively cooled power supply at 420 W and deploys Transphorm’s GaN in a single-phase CCM boost power factor correction (PFC) topology. It offers more than 92 percent overall system efficiency at full load, which is more than 10 percent greater than its competition. The system also yields a more than .98 power factor and 200 mVpp nominal at 115 VAC/400 Hz input at full load. All within an end product that is 1.4 kg (~3 lbs).

The 1200 W PS6120 deploys Transphorm’s GaN in a fan-cooled, three-phase CCM boost PFC topology. It offers more than 91.5 percent overall system efficiency at full load, which is 11.5 percent greater than its competition. The PS6120 also yields the same power factor and nominal ripple voltage at 115 VAC/400 Hz input at full load as the PS250X 500 W PSU. All within an end product that is 4.0 kg (~8.8 lbs).

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi plans to use the new SiC power technology to build high-power OBCs. As Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi’s chosen partner for SiC technology, ST will provide design-in support.

ST is also to supply Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi with associated components, including standard silicon devices. The OBCs with ST’s SiC are scheduled to enter volume production in 2021.

On-Board Charging
EVs need an OBC to handle charging from standard roadside charge points, when a dedicated home-charging system or super-charger is not available. The time to recharge is determined by the OBC power rating and the units in today’s EVs have ratings between about 3kW and 15kW.

As the leading EV brand, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi has already created a 22kW OBC for the Renault Zoe model, which can fully recharge the battery in about one hour. Now, by upgrading the OBC to leverage the superior efficiency and small size of ST’s SiC power semiconductors (MOSFETs and rectifier diodes), Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi can further reduce the size and weight while increasing energy efficiency. The new, compact, and high-power OBC gives designers more freedom to style the vehicle and optimize packaging, weight distribution, and vehicle drivability.

Source: https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/media-center/press-item.html/t3971.html

A multi-year agreement worth $85 Million has been signed between Cree Inc and ON Semiconductor. Wolfspeed subsidiary will produce and supply 150mm silicon carbide (SiC) bare and epitaxial wafers to ON Semiconductor Corp .

“Partnering with Cree is essential in maintaining a world-class supply base.”

ON Semiconductor VP & chief procurement officer Jeffrey

“This is the fourth major long-term agreement for silicon carbide materials that we have announced in the past year and a half”
Cree’s CEO Gregg Lowe

Source: http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2019/aug/cree-060819.shtml

Power Integrations has added new members to its InnoSwitch3 families of offline CV/CC flyback switcher ICs. The new ICs feature up to 95% efficiency across the full load range and up to 100W in enclosed adapter implementations. It uses an internally developed high-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) switch technology.

Quasi-resonant InnoSwitch3-CP, InnoSwitch3-EP and InnoSwitch3-Pro ICs combine primary, secondary and feedback circuits in a single surface-mounted package. In the new family members, GaN switches replace the traditional silicon high-voltage transistors on the primary side of the IC, reducing conduction losses when current is flowing, and considerably reducing switching losses during operation.

The new InnoSwitch 3 ICs are available now, priced at $4/unit in 10,000-piece quantities.

AOS (Alpha & Omega Semiconductor) has released a new Gallium Nitride device in their αGAN™ Technology platform: the AONV070V65G1.

The new device is a 650 V and 45 A device with a 70mOhm Rds(ON) (On-resistance). It’s the seconde device released by Alpha & Omega Semiconductor but it replaces the previous device. It’s proposed in a standard DFN 8×8 package.

Alpha & Omega Semiconductor has made the device available as of today, in production quantities, at a price of 8.00 USD for 10k units.

It comes to complete the power devices product line of Power MOSFET (including Super Junction MOSFET, IGBT, IPM, GaN and Power IC).

Datasheet: http://www.aosmd.com/res/data_sheets/AONV070V65G1.pdf

ST Microelectronics is to take a majority stake in Norstel. This acquisition is thought to secure the SiC supply for ST Microelectronics, not long after a SiC wafer supply agreement was signed between ST Microelectronics and Wolfspeed of Cree group.

ST Microelectronics is to take a majority stake in the Sweden based SiC wafer maker Norstel. ST Microelectronics already announced early January this year that they signed an agreement with Cree. This agreement guaranteed a several years long supply of SiC wafers for ST Microelectronics. It is now a new strategic move for ST Microelectronics.

The French-Italian chip maker will acquire 55% of Norstel now, and signed an agreement for a future acquisition of the 45% left.

ST Microelectronics can ben seen as a large leader of the SiC MOSFET market thanks to its second generation MOSFET used in Tesla Model 3 cars. They recently increased the production of their main Silicon Carbide devices production line from 800 wafers per week to 1000 wafers per week during Q4 2018 (source PntPower). Production volume should keep growing thanks to the need of devices for Tesla Model 3 and expected other Electric Vehicles in the future. ST Microelectronics’ strategy is to become a main leader in automotive power electronics thanks to their SiC MOSFETs product line.

Source and PntPower market analysis.