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Gallium Nitride (GaN) is a compound of nitrogen and gallium. It is a direct bandgap semiconductor with high hardness. The energy gap of gallium nitride is 3.4 eV, and the energy gap of the most commonly used semiconductor material is 1.12 eV, so gallium nitride can be used in high power, high speed components. At high frequencies, GaN devices have better performance and reliability in conduction and switching, and can also further reduce the size of peripheral components and increase power density. Therefore, under the recent energy-saving and carbon-reduction trend, GaN Power components have the opportunity to drive the power supply system to a large wattage and are favored by the market.

Even though the current GaN power market remains tiny compared to US$32.8 billion silicon power market, GaN devices are penetrating confidently into different applications. The biggest segment in the power GaN market is still power supply applications, i.e. fast charging for cellphones, and large wattage power supplies.
 

“The accumulation of the market growth in various applicative markets, especially the power supply market segment which is the most important in that case, confirms our first scenario,” comments Ana Villamor, PhD, Technology & Market Analyst at Yole.“Under this Base Case scenario, GaN market is expected to grow steadily. At Yole, we announce a GaN market to grow with 55% CAGR between 2017 and 2023”.

Yole Développement also pointed out that Apple intends to use GaN technology. If GaN power components are successfully used in consumer electronics, the annual compound growth rate is expected to be as high as 93%.

This article was originally from Anthea Chuang published in EE Times Taiwan on Sep 4th, 2019, available online: https://www.eettaiwan.com/news/article/20190904NT31-GaN-Power-supply