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.”

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,

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.

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).

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