Power Integrations is a leading innovator in semiconductor technologies for high-voltage power conversion. The company’s products are key building blocks in the clean-power ecosystem, enabling the generation of renewable energy as well as the efficient transmission and consumption of power in applications ranging from milliwatts to megawatts.
In summer 2019, Power Integrations announced new devices in its InnoSwitch™3 families of offline CV/CC flyback switcher ICs. The new devices feature its internally-developed high-voltage GaN switch technology – PowiGaN. The InnoSwitch3 family silicon variants, launched 18 months prior to the GaN devices, had already established themselves as the clear technology leader in the offline switcher IC market. With the anticipated rapid conversion from silicon transistors to GaN in many power applications, the company sought to further extend its lead in this market.
PowiGaN-enabled InnoSwitch3 offline CV/CC flyback switcher ICs feature up to 95% efficiency across the full load range and up to 100 W in enclosed adapter implementations without requiring a heatsink: a groundbreaking increase in performance. Quasi-resonant InnoSwitch3-CP, InnoSwitch3-EP and InnoSwitch3-Pro ICs combine primary, secondary and feedback circuits in a single surface-mounted package. GaN switches on the primary side of the IC reduce conduction losses and switching losses. Therefore, substantially less energy is wasted resulting in increased efficiency and power delivery from the space-saving InSOP-24D package.
Targeting high-efficiency flyback designs, such as USB-PD and high-current chargers/adapters for mobile devices, set-top boxes, displays, appliances, networking and gaming products, the new ICs provide accurate CV/CC/CP independent of external components and easily interface to fast-charging protocol ICs. The InnoSwitch3-CP and EP variants are hardware-configurable, while the InnoSwitch3-Pro incorporates a sophisticated digital interface for software control of CV and CC setpoints, exception handing and safety-mode options.
Because the operation of the PowiGaN-based InnoSwitch3 is indistinguishable from that of legacy devices from the same family, the new products provide a drop-in replacement for existing InnoSwitch-based circuits, and changes are only necessary to accommodate the higher power of the PowiGaN-based design.
To assist engineers with implementing new designs with InnoSwitch™3 switcher ICs featuring PowiGaN™ gallium nitride technology, the company has a number of reference designs on its website, together with an automated design tool, PI Expert™, and other technical support documentation.
The one millionth InnoSwitch™3 switcher IC featuring PowiGaN™ gallium nitride technology was shipped mid last year to Anker, the Shenzhen manufacturer of charging products for USB-PD and high-current adapters for mobile devices, set-top boxes, displays, appliances, networking and gaming products. Having reached this milestone shipment figure positioned Power Integrations as one of the world’s largest shippers of GaN-based ICs, and heralds the rapid transition from silicon to GaN transistors for mass market power applications. Power Integrations has once again demonstrated its leadership in innovation for the power market.
GaN Based Switcher ICs Empower Next Generation Power Products