EPC announced the launch of the EPC9170 Demo Board, a 2kW, two-phase 48 V /14 V bi-directional converter that achieves 96.8 percent peak efficiency in a small size. The board uses 100 V, 65 A ePower™ integrated circuit chipsets containing EPC23101 eGaN IC and EPC2302 eGaN FETs, enabling solutions with maximum voltages of 100 V, load currents up to 65 A and switching frequencies exceeding 1 MHz.

     The fast switching speed and low power consumption of gallium nitride (GaN) devices enable the converter to operate at 500 kHz, thus greatly reducing the size of the solution, as well as an efficiency of over 96.5% at 60 A-110 A and 95.8% at 140 A.

     The EPC9170 demo board uses the EPC23101 integrated circuit. The main features include the integration of a high side field effector with a maximum on-resistance of 3.3 mOhm, gate driver, input logic interface, level conversion, bootstrap charging, gate drive buffer circuit and gate driver output to drive the external low side eGaN FET. Integrated drivers further simplify design and reduce parasitic inductance.

     The EPC9170 demo board uses the EPC2302 eGaN FET with an ultra-small on-off resistance (typical value only 1.4 mOhm) and very small QG, QGD, and QOSS parameters to achieve low conduction and switching losses.

     The EPC23101 and EPC2302 are in a heat-enhanced QFN package with a bare top and an optimized pin layout between the two devices. With a total board area of 7 mm x 5 mm, the chipset provides an ultra-miniaturized solution for the highest power density applications.

     "The eGaN FET and IC offer the advantages of fast switching, small size and high efficiency, further reducing the size and weight of the 48 V/12 V and 14 V converters," said Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. "The EPC9170 demo board fully demonstrates the power of the ePower chipset by increasing frequency and efficiency, allowing space and weight to be critical to the design, achieving smaller inductance, fewer phases and higher power density."