Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2024-04-16 Origin: Site
Gallium nitride is replacing silicon and is increasingly used in applications that require greater power density and higher energy efficiency. As the key to providing uninterrupted connectivity, many data centers rely on the increasingly popular semiconductor technology to improve energy efficiency and power density. .
Gallium nitride technology, commonly known as GaN, is a wide-bandgap semiconductor material increasingly used in high-voltage applications. These applications require power supplies with greater power density, higher energy efficiency, higher switching frequency, better thermal management and smaller size. In addition to data centers, these applications include HVAC systems, communications power supplies, photovoltaic inverters and laptop charging supplies.
David Snook, head of GaN product line at Texas Instruments, said: "Gallium nitride is a critical step toward increasing power density and improving power system and power efficiency in a variety of applications. The number of companies using GaN in their designs is growing rapidly. Lowering power consumption and Improving efficiency is crucial.”
For more than 60 years, silicon has been the foundation of semiconductor power management components that convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) and then convert the DC voltage input according to the needs of a variety of applications, from mobile phones to industrial robots. One thing is enough. As components have been improved and optimized, the physical properties of silicon have been put to good use. Today, silicon cannot deliver more power at the required frequencies without increasing size.
As a result, over the past decade, many circuit designers have turned to GaN to achieve higher power in smaller spaces. Many designers are confident in the technology’s potential for future innovations, primarily due to three factors:
As a semiconductor application, although GaN is relatively new to silicon, it has been developed for many years and has certain reliability. Texas Instruments GaN chips have passed more than 40 million hours of reliability testing. Its effectiveness is evident even in demanding applications such as data centers.
David said: "As consumers and enterprises continue to demand increasing amounts of data for applications such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and industrial automation, more and more data centers are needed around the world. To ensure that data centers can be added without excessive To go online without compromising energy consumption, a more efficient server power supply needs to be achieved, and GaN is the key technology to achieve this type of power supply.”
Although GaN is now more expensive than silicon on a chip-level basis, the overall system cost advantages, efficiency and power density improvements that GaN brings more than outweigh the value of the initial investment. For example, using a GaN-based power management system in a 100-megawatt data center could save $7 million in energy costs over 10 years, even with an efficiency gain of just 0.8%. The energy saved is enough to power 80,000 homes, or about the size of a small city, for a year.
"GaN technology can operate at higher frequencies, which enables some topologies and architectures with lower bill of materials cost," said Robert Taylor, general manager of Texas Instruments' power design services group. "Thanks to the higher operating frequencies, engineers can also Choosing smaller additional components in the design provides topologies not supported by silicon, giving engineers the flexibility to optimize their power designs.”
GaN FETs require dedicated gate drivers, which means additional design time and effort. However, Texas Instruments has simplified GaN design by integrating gate drivers and some protection features into the chip.
David said: "Integrated drivers help improve performance and provide higher power density and higher switching frequency, thereby improving efficiency and reducing overall system size. Integration provides huge performance advantages and simplifies design using GaN, allowing designers to Take advantage of this technology to a greater extent.”
