Isra-Mart srl : Transphorm rolls out EZ-GaN switching transistor

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A Google-backed start-up launched its first product this week, designed to reduce the power loss associated with converting power from one source to another.

Transphorm, which received $20m in funding from Google Ventures in February, launched a 600 volt transistor yesterday, built on the firm's gallium nitrate technology.

The transistor is designed to switch power very rapidly from one format to another, while reducing the electromagnetic interference that generally plagues silicon carbide-based power switches.

The EZ-GaN transistor replaces silicon carbide-based super junction transistors, and can be used in power convergence circuits such as bridge converters and inverters, reducing switching losses by up to 95 per cent.

The company launched a diode in March, when it also demonstrated the transistor. Diodes can be used to create rectifiers, which can convert alternating current into direct current. Conversely, transistors are used to help build switched-mode power supplies, which might transfer power from the electrical grid to an electrical device such as a PC.

Power efficient transformers for PCs and servers have been a tough nut for the industry to crack. In 2007, Google and Intel created Climate Savers, an organisation dedicated to power management for PCs and other IT infrastructure. Increasing the power efficiency of transformers was one of the initiative's main goals.

Transphorm chief executive Umesh Mishra hopes that datacentres will use products that third parties will launch with his components to help reduce power conversion costs.

"One of the biggest costs for running a datacentre isn't labour and the bright minds, it's electricity," he said. "It's great for the fact that you don't have to cool the data server farms."

Mishra also wants to sell his components into photovoltaic power inverters and electric vehicles, not to mention what he calls "old economy" products such as motor drives.

The technology is currently expensive, but Transphorm sees a "road to cost parity" based on the fact that gallium nitrite can be grown on silicon, which the company hopes to achieve within the next four years.