On the final day of Electronica 2010, International Rectifier (IR) presented a roadmap for the commercialization of GaN power switches that included both low-voltage (20-40V) and high-voltage (600V) devices. The first 20-40V devices are being targeted at low-voltage dc-dc converter applications while the initial 600V devices are expected to find use in power factor correction and inverter designs.
IR currently plans to be in production with a 600V cascaded GaN switch in 2011. The normally-off device will offer up to 10X better Figure-of-Merit than Si-based equivalents. It is expected to have a 20X lower Qrr compared to IGBT Copak devices and more than 200X less than Super Junction body diodes.