Re:Anker PowerPort PD 1 USB-C Wall Charger Teardown
by baybal2 on Tuesday January 08, 2019 @03:29PM
(#18859337)
> But it only lets some of the system shrink; for something like a mains charger, you still need the isolation magnetics, so your overall size is still constrained.
1. You can isolate with caps... if you trust their manufacturer. http://www.helixsemiconductors.com/uploads/cms_uploads/2018/...
2. Well if things go this way, one can go for "virtual isolation" with beefy mosfets, and pray that the gate fail before the junction melts to pieces. This is actually what apple recently patented.
Nice to meet an actual engineer here. What is your field of work?
Yes, size is the main product-level advantage of GaN. But it only lets some of the system shrink; for something like a mains charger, you still need the isolation magnetics, so your overall size is still constrained. And at the power levels of a few watts that many chargers work with, Si FETs are simply good enough. A 5W USB charger isn't going to get any smaller with GaN. It only starts to get interesting with really high power densities.