News: Microelectronics
12 October 2023
GaN Systems’ co-founder Geoff Haynes joins QPT as advisor
Power electronics company Quantum Power Transformation (QPT) of Cambridge, UK (which was founded in 2020) says that Geoff Haynes, who co-founded GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) is joining its team as an advisor.
QPT’s technology “solves the thermal and RF problems that GaN is now facing that currently form an insurmountable major barrier for the widespread use of GaN in high-power, high-voltage, hard-switching applications,” says Haynes. “I visited the company’s laboratory and was so impressed with its solutions that I am joining the company as an advisor to help them rapidly deploy this technology to the market. With it, GaN can now operate at the high frequencies needed to deliver significant power savings and open up applications worth billions as it provides a far superior performance and efficiency than silicon carbide,” he adds.
Haynes is a “world authority on GaN and knows the challenges that it currently faces that limit its use,” comments QPT’s founder & CEO Rob Gwynne. “He immediately understood how our solutions and patents unlock the next phase in the evolution of GaN to become the enabling technology of choice for power electronics,” he adds. “Having him join and effectively putting his name behind QPT’s qGaN solutions is an incredible endorsement not only for customers but also for our upcoming Series A funding round.”
GaN transistors can quickly transition from on to off at 1–2ns instead of 20–50ns for silicon and SiC transistors, notes QPT. However, achieving maximum performance is challenging in many high-voltage, high-power applications without significant RF interference issues or overheating.
QPT says that its qGaN module solution enables the GaN transistors to be run at their full potential of up to 20MHz with nanosecond switching to deliver better operational precision. The firm’s technology in a variable-frequency drive (VFD) enables motors to be driven at up to 99.7% efficiency at peak load with hardly any decrease in efficiency at lower loads. This is a challenge for conventional designs today, says QPT, where the efficiency can drop off rapidly at lower loads. In addition to superior efficiency, the higher converter frequency significantly reduces the size and weight of the power electronics by 10x or more as well as reducing the manufacturing costs due to the removal of expensive filters that are normally required to protect the motor. Application areas include heat pumps, industrial motors, HVAC systems and electric vehicles.
QPT and GaN Systems sign MoU to develop technologies to extend EV driving range
QPT’s modules enable GaN to operate at up to 20MHz without overheating or RF issues
