Energy Efficient Wide Bandgap Devices

As wide bandgap devices begin to become commercially available, it is becoming clear that electrical efficiency improvement is one of the key drivers for their adoption. For RF applications, GaN HEMTs allow the use of highly efficient class E circuit topologies demonstrating high powers of 63 Watts at 2 GHz with 75% power added efficiency. In broadband WiMax applications, GaN HEMTs offer very wide bandwidths while meeting the IEEE 802.16e standard with >25% drain efficiency. SiC Schottky diodes are allowing up to a 25% reduction in losses in power supplies for computers and servers when used in the power factor correction circuit. Even higher efficiencies can be obtained when the SiC Schottkys are combined with a SiC MOSFET as the switch, resulting in yet another 22% reduction in losses. For motor control, SiC Schottkys allow a >35% reduction in losses, as demonstrated for a 3 HP motor drive