Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) is a fabless semiconductor company spun-out by Professor Florin Udrea and Dr Giorgia Longobardi from Cambridge University in 2016 to exploit a revolutionary technology in power devices. Their mission is to bring innovation into everyday life by delivering effortless energy efficient GaN solutions. CGD designs, develops and commercializes GaN transistors and integrated circuits (ICs) enabling a radical step change in energy efficiency and compactness and is suitable for high volume production. With the help of its GaN-based transistors, power losses can be reduced by more than 50%, broadening the applicability of the technology.
CGD’s ICeGaN™ technology is protected by a strong IP portfolio which constantly grows based on the company’s leading innovation skills and ambitions. In addition to the multi-million seed fund and Series A private investments, CGD has so far successfully secured four projects funded by iUK, UK department of business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and EU (Penta). The technical and commercial expertise of the CGD team combined with an extensive track record in the power electronics market has been fundamental in early market traction of our proprietary technology.
Interview with Andrea Bricconi, VP Business Development at Cambridge GaN Devices.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Andrea Bricconi: CGD’s is focused on 650V GaN solutions made on Si substrates.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
A.B: We have launched first 4 650V GaN Power ICs back in March 2022 at APEC Conference. They are all based on ICeGaN™ technology and consist of an eMode GaN HEMT with integrated logic to facilitate the use with any standard gate driver and saving 80% of the driving components which are usually needed to drive other GaN concepts.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
A.B: ICeGaN™ 650V H1 series.
KEY FEATURES
- NormOFF GaN, 1 chip
- Highly reliable gate concept
- No needs for negative gate voltages to Turn Off
- Built-in clamping structure
- Uncompromised GaN switching performance or Rds(on)
- Additional Smart Sense&Protection Features
KEY BENEFITS
- Easy design-in
- Enables use of standard MOSFET drivers and/or controllers without driving/clamping circuits
- Enables direct connection to ground for optimized cooling
- Allows slew rate (dV/dt) control
- Suitable for all hard and soft switching topologies
Andrea Bricconi, VP Business Development at Cambridge GaN Devices.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
A.B: GaN market is booming, starting from low power mobile USB-PD chargers and rapidly taking on Silicon in other consumer segments, like gaming laptop adapters, all the way to high power and soon Automotive. It is estimated to have exceeded the $100m mark in 2022 (LV + HV) and is predicted by several agencies to cross the $1b line in the middle of the decade, driven by adoption in datacom and automotive.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
A.B: While in general we assist to a consumer market which is steady or even declining, as far as power semiconductors are concerned, we also observe strong growth in those segments where the need for energy efficiency is increasing, such as datacenters, solar and automotive. GaN is a perfect fit for all of them, as it delivers the highest performance among all power semiconductors. It switches much faster than Si and up to 600-800V finds no rivals for the ultimate efficiency and power density. Above the level, in the 1200V domain, SiC still has an edge and the target of all GaN manufacturers is to demonstrate compelling 1200 solutions to attack Si and SiC in segments like DC-AC traction inverters for electric vehicles and other very high power applications.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
A.B: We believe CGD has launched a technology which, thanks to extreme ease of use, will help GaN to become a popular choice for SMPS and power conversion in general.
In general, we welcome all GaN products which exploit the advantage of GaN of being a lateral technology, thus enabling multi-chip integration on one substrate, what is basically difficult and expensive with the semiconductors.
E.E: What estimations do you have for the rest of 2022?
A.B: CGD is scaling up and entered mass production phase. We see 2022 as a consolidation of our initial efforts and plan to enter 2023 with a series of activities and with a worldwide team that will bring us among the market leaders very soon.
