The third generation of semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) has been widely used in consumer power products in recent years, accelerating the replacement of traditional small-power and large-size power adapters, and greatly improving the power density of power supply products. At the same time, with the release of the USB PD3.1 fast charging standard, the maximum output power of 240W also puts forward more stringent requirements for the performance of the entire power supply system. How to achieve high-power, high-performance, high-density power supply design through a simpler way has become a common problem faced by the majority of power supply engineers.
As a technology innovation company focusing on high-voltage power conversion in the semiconductor field, Power Integrations has a deep technical accumulation in the high-integration power chip market, and has launched a series of PowiGaN power chips for gallium nitride fast charging applications, and has two types of quasi-resonant flyback QR architecture and active clamp ACF architecture, which can meet the high-density fast charging applications of multiple powers. At the same time, PI also launched a fully integrated PD power chip, which provides a new solution for the design of low-power fast charging source with higher integration.
It is understood that the current PI gallium nitride power chip has been OPPO, millet, ANKER, Nubia, Belkin, Greenlink, Bess and many other well-known brands of fast charging products, thanks to the high integration characteristics, PI power chip in the realization of small volume power supply design has obvious advantages.
Recently, Charging Head Network had the honor to interview Doug Bailey, vice president of marketing at PI, to exchange PI's product layout in the consumer power supply market and future industry trends. The following is a transcript of the interview:
Charging head network: What is the unique design of PI that can reduce the standby power consumption of the power supply chip?
PI: Power Integrations' EcoSmart technology acts as the brain of the power supply, not only providing the voltage and current required for product operation, but also intelligently managing the power flow, maintaining high efficiency even under light loads. When there is no load, EcoSmart technology effectively turns off the power supply, bringing the power consumption close to zero. To date, EcoSmart technology has been estimated to have saved nearly 150 billion kWh of energy.
Charging head network: PI has always been deeply rooted in the power chip market, and the protocol chips are from other partners. Seeing PI launch a new product with an integrated PD agreement this year, will this compete with existing partners? How does the PI see this?
PI:Power Integrations works with all leading PD protocol controller companies and promotes reference designs that adopt Weltrend, Via Labs, Injoinic and other vendor-related products. This allows designers to choose their preferred microcontroller IC when designing with Power Integrations ICs, and we will continue to support this activity." Professional controller vendors do an excellent job of supporting advanced multiple output designs and leveraging a variety of complex protocol options and OEM-specific custom protocols and extensions.
"Integration" is an integral part of our company name. For some simple applications, choose from our InnoSwitch3-PD product family, which includes USB C and PD microcontrollers and other common components of the InnoSwith3 family to minimize BOM count. This is the most integrated solution available and is ideal for low-cost, small, simple USB interface designs.
Charging head network: InnoSwitch4 series power chips have high efficiency, does PI have a layout for the high-power power chips used in USB PD3.1?
PI: Power Integrations' latest InnoSwitch-4 family of ICs includes more powerful Gallium nitride devices with lower RDS(on) and therefore lower losses. With a PFC stage on the front, the InnoSwitch-4, combined with Power Integrations' ClampZero active clamp IC, can deliver up to 220W of power, which is sufficient for most USB-PD 3.1 adapters.
Charging head network: It is understood that the current PI existing chips are built-in power devices of high integration design, the power can reach up to 110W and no heat sink, so for the latest 140W, 240W fast charging source, how to use PI chip to achieve?
PI:Power Integrations engineers have developed higher-power, more efficient Gallium Nitride switches, and we have upgraded the InnoSwitch-4 product family and the ClampZero product family with these new devices. The InnoSwitch4-CZ delivers up to 220W of power. It is not only efficient, but also easy to use, providing a more flexible and lower cost alternative to resonant converters for variable output power supplies.
Charging head network: For the USB PD3.1 fast charging that has arrived, PI feels that there will be major applications in the future, and is PI ready accordingly?
PI: We now see chargers that can deliver 240W of power. Most consumer electronics and home appliances support an output of 240W, so we're seeing USB PD3.1 become ubiquitous in applications that reach that power level.
Charging head network: How does PI view the development of the fast charging market?
PI: There's a word used to describe the fear of not being able to use a cell phone: Nomophobia. More specifically, according to a survey by LG, "low-battery anxiety disorder" refers to the feeling of fear you experience when your battery runs out — "causing you to live your life the way your phone is not your own."
As smart devices become more complex, they require more power, but users (who may suffer from low-battery anxiety) want to charge faster and faster. Power Integrations offers a variety of power conversion IC solutions to meet the needs of the mobile charger market. The InnoSwitch product family integrates primary, secondary, and feedback circuitry into a surface-mount, offline flyback switch IC. The InnoSwitch IC integrates a high-voltage primary-side switch (power MOSFET or gallium nitride (GaN) switch), a primary-side controller, a secondary-side controller for synchronous rectification, and FluxLink communication technology that eliminates optocoupleration.
Charging head network: How does PI reflect the reduction of carbon emissions in power chip products?
One of the main goals of PI: Power Integrations is to improve the efficiency of energy production, transmission and consumption. Improving power conversion efficiency helps reduce energy waste and therefore requires less energy to produce, which means fewer carbon emissions if fossil fuels are still in use.
Power Integrations now offers Gallium Nitride-based InnoSwitch4-CZ power IC for smartphone and adapter applications with an efficiency of over 95%. We also offer BridgeSwitch ICs that enable inverter conversion efficiency of more than 98.5% in brushless DC motor drive applications up to 400W. We also introduced the SCALE-iFlex LT dual plug-and-play gate driver for high power applications, which improves the performance of multiple EconoDUAL modules in parallel by 20%, allowing users to save one in every six modules from the power inverter and converter stacks. In addition, these drives are adapted to new energy generation and storage applications, which can further reduce carbon emissions.
Charging head network: What fast charging new products will be launched by your company in 2022, is it convenient to disclose it?
PI: We have partnered with leading OEM and non-original parts companies to build high-power adapters with our latest innovations. Stay tuned for follow-up news!
Charging head network: How many PI Gallium nitride chips have reached cumulative shipments?
PI: According to credible third-party reports, Power Integrations will account for the largest share of the Gallium Nitride power supply market in 2019, 2020 and 2021. We agree and expect us to remain ahead of the curve for the foreseeable future.
Charging head network: Is it possible for PI to develop into the field of wireless charging in the future?
PI: Wireless charging is a very interesting technology. We provide high efficiency power ICs for wireless power systems and we are closely tracking market developments, such as increased power levels, to ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality solutions for this market segment.
Charging head net summary
In the face of the growing gallium nitride fast charging market, the veteran power chip manufacturer PI has carried out a comprehensive product layout, based on the technical advantages of highly integrated sealing chips, one chip can complete most of the functions in the design of high-density fast charging sources.
In terms of high-performance ACF power architecture, the innoSwitch-4 + ClampZero combination was introduced, with a maximum efficiency of up to 95%, and for low-cost, low-power gallium nitride fast charging, PI introduced a more integrated InnoSwitch3-PD product family.
In the field of high-power fast charging, PI has also laid out PFC chips and developed higher-power, more efficient gallium nitride switches, which can currently provide a maximum of 220W fast charging source solutions to meet the application needs of USB PD3.1 fast charging at this stage.