High Voltage and High Switching Frequency Power-Supplies using a GaN-HEMT

This paper reports 13.56 MHz and 27.1 MHz class-E amplifiers with a high voltage GaN-HEMT as the main switching device showing the possibility of GaN-HEMTs in high frequency switching power applications such as RF power-supply applications. The 380 V/1.9 A GaN power-HEMT was designed and fabricated for high-voltage power electronics applications. The demonstrated 13.56 MHz circuit achieved the output power of 13.4 W and the power efficiency of 91 % under a drain-peak voltage as high as 330 V. For a 27.1 MHz circuit, the output power was 13.8 W with the efficiency of 89.6 %. These results show that high voltage GaN-devices are suitable for high frequency switching applications under high DC input voltages of over 100 V