Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?

Re:Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon? by ChuckMcM on Monday April 04, 2016 @07:45PM (#11426689)

   > If GaN were going to replace Si (it isn't), this 
   > isn't how you'd find out.

I think the generalized form of this statement is under appreciated. In my experience it is common for company leaders to always position their company's products as the "next big thing" and it is never this sort of announcement that makes it the "next big thing" or even foretells the next big thing. So often the actual next big thing sort of "explodes" into your consciousness as "everything" is using/employing/copying it. And following back the bread crumbs to the first mentions, rarely include a lot of pre-press on how good its going to be.

That said, GaN power transistors are a thing. They were used in the winning inverter contest Google ran[1], I've played with some samples from Mouser [2] and they really are amazing. I thought IGBT transistors would replace power MOSFETs but now I'm pretty sure it will be these bad boys.

[1] http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/02/and-winner-of-1-m...

[2] http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/FlyerSMDChopperBoardPGA26E19BA...

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Re:Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon? by deciplex on Monday April 04, 2016 @09:54PM (#11427241)

> And following back the bread crumbs to the first mentions, rarely include a lot of pre-press on how good its going to be.

You'd find it of course, but you'll also find it for everything else that failed. Its predictive power is near to zero.

Also, Betteridge's Law applies here, as always.

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