Switching performance and efficiency investigation of GaN based DC-DC Buck converter for low voltage and high current applications

The Wide band-gap (WBG) materials "such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium nitride (GaN)" based power switching devices provide higher performance capabilities compared to Si-based power switching devices. The wide band-gap materials based power switching devices outperform Si-based devices in many performance characteristics such as: low witching loss, low conduction loss, high switching frequencies, and high operation temperature. GaN based switching devices benefit a lot of applications such as: future electric vehicles and solar power inverters. In this paper, a DC-DC Buck converter based on GaN FET for low voltage and high current applications is designed and investigated. The converter is designed for stepping down a voltage of 48V to 12V with high switching frequency. The capability of the GaN FET based buck converter is studied and compared to equivalent SiC MOSFET and Si-based MOSFET buck converters. The analysis of switching losses and efficiency was performed to compare the performance capabilities of GaN FET, SiC MOSFET and Si-based MOSFET. The results showed that the overall switching losses of GaN FET are lower than that of SiC and Si-based power switching devices. Also, the performance capability of GaN devices with higher frequencies is studied. GaN devices with high frequencies will reduce the total size and the cost of the power converter. In Addition, the overall efficiency of the DC-DC Buck converter is higher with the GaN FET switching devices, which make it more suitable for low voltage and high current applications.