Power specialist claims ‘fundamental’ GaN patents issued
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Transphorm has secured what it calls two fundamental patents in the area of gallium nitride power conversion. Both patents – issued in the US, China and Taiwan – are directed towards the operation and use of GaN transistors in applications such as half bridges.
Bridge circuits are used in many power converters and inverters, as well as in power factor correction circuits. These bridge circuits, says the company, cover more than 60% of the total market.
"Transphorm's patent portfolio comprises fundamental IP in all key areas, ranging from material growth of GaN on silicon, device structures and fabrication, and packaging and circuits, with a particularly far reaching impact on the use of GaN in applications," claimed Primit Parikh, Transphorm's president. "No matter how other GaN providers manufacture their products, they will have to consider Transphorm's GaN bridge circuit patent family for bridge applications."
The patents are said to belong to a bridge circuit patent family based on the Transphorm Diode-Free GaN solution, in which a GaN transistor also serves the function of the conventional anti-parallel or fly-back diode required in traditional approaches. This not only helps to eliminate diode components, but also eliminates the cost, space and energy loss associated with them.
