Advances in wide bandgap (WBG) power devices are enabling silicon-carbide (SiC) and gallium-nitride (GaN) devices that can operate at higher voltages and temperatures than conventional semiconductor devices. Also, they can switch at faster speeds with lower switching losses. New SiC and GaN solutions and developments are especially taking hold in three fields: data centers, wireless charging, and energy harvesting. Each of these application areas are driving the development of WBG power devices in different ways, resulting in various product evolutions:
Data centers. The overall power consumption for data centers over the period covering 2010 to 2020 is expected to exceed 70 billion kW. Datacenter designers are always looking for better solutions to help them improve the efficiency of their designs for energy saving purposes. In response, semiconductor companies like Transphorm Inc., Texas Instruments, and Wolfspeed had developed WBG-based power-supply solutions. An example is a 2kW totem pole PFC topology developed by Wolfspeed for a power supply utilizing SiC MOSFETs capable of reaching 80+ titanium standards in data centers while keeping cost under control.