From Consumer to Automotive/Industrial Etc., Gan Further Leverages The Market!

2023-03-25 From consumer to automotive/industrial etc., GaN further leverages the market!

Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology, which has been surfing in the field of consumer electronics for the first 10 years, continues to innovate and develop, and has gradually emerged in the automotive, data communication and other industrial applications in the past two years.

GaN applications continue to expand

The consumer sector has been the main driver of GaN adoption by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with the power equipment market being the mainstream market and fast chargers being the main application, in addition to some audio equipment. With GaN, smartphone manufacturers can make smaller and more cost-effective chargers.

Most GaN-based chargers on the market today are around or below 65W, which the industry says is the "sweet spot" for price/performance. However, with the market demand for higher power, the new trend of smartphone fast chargers with a target power higher than 75 may drive smartphone OEMs to adopt GaN in the near future. Most countries over 75W power requires power factor correction (PFC) circuitry, which requires the use of more GaN content.

In addition, in the automotive, data communications and other industrial applications of GaN technology is further applied. For example, in the automotive sector, the main driver will be the on-board chargers (AC-DC conversion) and DC/DC converters (voltage range of 48V to 400V) for electric vehicles. Market sources indicate that probably by around 2030, OEMs will start to consider integrating GaN in the main inverter (650-800V).

From the market situation, in the past few years more and more car manufacturers cooperate with GaN device suppliers. For example, German automotive system manufacturer ZF cooperated with Israeli GaN company VisIC, and Italian auto parts manufacturer Marelli cooperated with GaN device company Transphorm, etc.