GOLETA, CALIF.-- February 25, 2022 -- Transphorm, Inc. (Nasdaq: TGAN)—a pioneer in and global supplier of high reliability, high performance gallium nitride (GaN) power conversion products—announced today that it will demonstrate leading-edge R&D results from its 1200-volt GaN device at the International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), a prestigious IEEE conference in the power semiconductor industry.

The 1200V GaN device delivers greater than 99 percent efficiency and performs well against a leading SiC MOSFET of similar on-resistance. Partially funded by the ARPA-E CIRCUITS program, Transphorm is developing the technology for electric vehicle mobility and infrastructure power systems as well as industrial and renewable energy systems. This major milestone further strengthens Transphorm’s ability to support the broadest range of power—from 45W to 10K+ kW—across the widest range of cross-industry applications when compared to any other GaN supplier today.

The ISPSD presentation in May will provide detailed information of device configuration and performance analysis conducted using a hard-switched, synchronous boost half bridge topology. The initial 1200V GaN device in a TO-247 package has an RDS(on) of 70 milliohms and easily scales to lower resistance and higher power levels. Early results show notably low leakage with a breakdown voltage of greater than 1400 volts.

“Building on Transphorm’s unique vertically integrated capability, our engineers have yet again pushed the limits of what’s possible with GaN,” said Umesh Mishra, CTO and Co-founder, Transphorm. “We aim to bring to market an ultra-high voltage, reliable GaN product that will give customers more choice when developing power systems. Our 1200-volt GaN FET will enable excellent performance with greater designability and cost effectiveness than SiC solutions. We see this as an important milestone for the GaN power electronics industry.”

To date, commercially available high power GaN transistors generally range from 600 to 650 volts, with the only 900V GaN device available from Transphorm. Transphorm’s core product portfolio is comprised of normally-off 650V devices in well-known TO-XXX and PQFN packages, addressing one of the broadest range of power applications among any GaN provider in the market. This enables customers to leverage GaN’s inherent advantages—high power density, high power efficiency, low switching loss, and lower overall system cost—while working with reliable devices that are easier to design in and drive versus alternative e-mode GaN or SiC options. Demonstrating the 1200V FET’s performance promises to expand Transphorm’s portfolio and ultimate market opportunity by supporting demanding, high performance power system applications traditionally relying on SiC solutions.

“1200V GaN has been discussed within the industry for some time, but often perceived as rather difficult to achieve,” said Dr. Isik Kizilyalli, Associate Director for Technology at the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). “As part of the ARPA-E CIRCUITS program led by the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Transphorm team has demonstrated an important breakthrough, showcasing GaN performance at the 1200-volt device node with high efficiency 800-volt switching.”

Transphorm’s 1200V FETs are expected to be available for sampling in 2023.