MACOM intros industry’s highest power GaN in plastic transistor

USA: M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. (MACOM), a leading supplier of high performance analog semiconductor solutions, introduced its series of GaN in Plastic packaged power transistors for high-performance civilian and military radar and communications systems.

Scaling to peak pulse power levels of 100W – the highest among competing components in this product category – MACOM’s GaN in Plastic transistors defy the power, size and weight limitations of competing ceramic-packaged offerings to enable a new generation of high performance, ultra compact military and civilian radar systems. As a result, customers can use these products to provide new capabilities and take advantage of the total system cost reductions associated with size, weight, and cooling requirements.

Packaged in miniature 3 x 6 mm dual-flat no leads (DFN) and standard small outline transistor (SOT-89) packages, MACOM’s GaN in Plastic transistors operate at 50V drain bias resulting in outstanding power density and performance, higher efficiency, and smaller impedance matching circuits due to improved device parasitics. The high voltage operation also benefits overall system design with smaller energy storage capacitors and lower current draw.

The power transistors leverage sophisticated thermal management techniques to ensure excellent reliability in surface mount applications. The 90W power transistor demonstrates less than 115⁰C junction temperature (80⁰C base-plate) for a pulsed power output of 93W, using a 1mS pulse and 10 percent duty cycle on standard Rogers board material.

The devices can operate at even higher temperatures, as the calculated mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) at 200⁰C is roughly 600 years.