Since more and more mobile phone manufacturers launch the gallium nitride fast charger, what is a GaN fast charger? A gallium nitride charger is that the core device of such a fast charger for smartphones, laptops and etc. adopts GaN FETs chip, which can be offered by PAM-XIAMEN. The gallium nitride chargers have the characteristics of small size, high efficiency, and low heat generation, supporting rapid charging of smartphones, laptops and other power devices.
Why charger made on GaN FETs chip is faster than the traditional one? The reasons are analyzed based on the gallium nitride material as follows:
1. Superior Gallium Nitride Material Properties for Gallium Nitride Fast Charger
Gallium nitride (GaN) is a semiconductor material composed of nitrogen and gallium. Because gallium nitride band gap is greater than 2.2 eV, it is also called a wide band gap semiconductor material, and is also called a third-generation semiconductor material. GaN fast chargers have stronger output power and smaller size, are dozens of times the power characteristic ratio of ordinary silicon-based devices. GaN is a breakthrough material for power semiconductors in the future.
Compared with silicon material, properties of gallium nitride material are mainly as follows:
- Forbidden band width is 3 times larger;
- Breakdown field strength is 10 times higher;
- Saturated electron migration speed is 3 times higher;
- Gallium nitride thermal conductivity is 2 times higher;
Some of the advantages brought by these performance improvements are that gallium nitride is more suitable for high-power and high-frequency power devices, like gallium nitride fast charger, with a smaller volume and a greater power density.
2. Gallium Nitride Applications
Gallium nitride is a substance that does not exist in nature, and it is completely artificially synthesized. Gallium nitride has no liquid state, so the Czochralski method of the monocrystalline silicon production process cannot be used to pull out the GaN single crystal, which can be synthesized purely by gas reaction. Due to the long reaction time, slow speed, many reaction by-products, harsh equipment requirements, complex GaN technology for growth, and extremely low productivity, gallium nitride single crystal materials are extremely difficult to obtain. Therefore, in commercial application, gallium nitride heteroepitaxial wafers are more used.
2.1 Typical Application of GaN Epitaxial Wafer in Power Charger
The growth of gallium nitride on a single crystal gallium nitride substrate is called homoepitaxial, and the growth of gallium nitride on a substrate of other materials is called a heteroepitaxial wafer. At present, gallium nitride on sapphire, gallium nitride on silicon carbide, gallium nitride on silicon wafer are the main gallium nitride heteroepitaxial wafers.
Among them, GaN on sapphire can only be used to make LEDs; GaN on Si can be used for fabricating power devices(e.g. GaN power charger) and low-power radio frequency; GaN on SiC can be used to make high-power LEDs, power devices and high-power radio frequency chips. Gallium nitride phone charger is a typical application of GaN FET based on silicon substrate.
2.2 Detail Description for Main Applications
Thus, there are three more important application fields for gallium nitride wafer, namely the optoelectronics field, power field(especially the fast charger) and radio frequency field. More details please refer to the datasheet:
| Main applications of GaN materials | Optoelectronic device | Light-emitting Diode(LED) | Semiconductor lighting, visible light communication, smart lighting, light health, etc. |
| Laser(LD/VCSEL): blue-green light, ultraviolet | Blue-green: laser display, plastic optical fiber and underwater communication, local area network communication;
Ultraviolet: high-density storage, light-sensitive printing, chemical sensing, non-line-of-sight transmission, laser lithography, etc. |
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| Power electronics | GaN HEMT | Low voltage (<1.2KV): consumer electronics;
Medium voltage (1.2KV-1.7KV): new energy vehicles, industrial motors, UPS, photovoltaic inverters, etc; High voltage (>1.7KV): wind power, rail transit, smart grid, etc. |
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| Microwave radio frequency devices | GaN radio frequency devices HBT, HEMT | Communication base station and terminal
Satellite communications Radar Space remote sensing, etc. |
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| MMIC |
Thanks to the greater demand in gallium nitride fast charger and the breakthrough of PAM-XIAMEN’s Si-based GaN in the power field, there will be a greater growth in gallium nitride FETs chip for phone charger in the future.
For more information, please contact us email at victorchan@powerwaywafer.com and powerwaymaterial@gmail.com.