EPC announces the publication of its Phase-15 Reliability Report, documenting continued work using test-to-fail methodology and adding specific reliability metrics and predictions for real-world applications including solar optimizers, lidar sensors, and DC-DC converters.

This report presents the results of testing eGaN devices to the point of failure, which provides the information to identify the intrinsic failure mechanisms of the devices. By identifying these intrinsic failure mechanisms, physics-based models that accurately project the safe operating life of a product over a more general set of operating conditions are developed. This is applied to information from real-world experience to determine mission robustness for specific applications.

This report is divided into nine sections, each dealing with a different failure mechanism or application case:

Section 1: Voltage/temperature stress on the gate

Section 2: Voltage/temperature stress on the drain

Section 3: Safe operating area (SOA)

Section 4: Short-circuit robustness testing

Section 5: Mechanical force stress testing

Section 6: Thermo-mechanical stress

Section 7: Reliability test results for long-term lidar pulse stress conditions

Section 8: Using test-to-fail methodology to accurately predict how eGaN devices can last more than 25 years in solar applications

Section 9: Applying the physics-based model to real-world DC-DC converter use cases

According to Dr. Alex Lidow, CEO and co-founder of EPC, “The release of EPC’s Phase-15 reliability report examines information from real-world experience that either confirms the laboratory-derived data or opens new questions about mission robustness that leads to a deeper understanding of the behavior of GaN devices over a wide range of stress conditions.”