New power semiconductor technologies such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) promise to rewrite the record books with respect to power supply performance. In the process, the new components based on these technologies will redefine what’s possible in terms of power efficiency, density and other metrics. Existing power supply applications will benefit even as brand new applications are enabled.
But for the component suppliers and the power system designers looking to exploit these new technologies, there will be a price to pay. Design and simulation techniques will need to be modified and adapted to the requirements of the new technologies. Power component and power system designers will need to adapt to rapidly rising switching frequencies by thinking more like RF/microwave designers, and developing/adopting the system-level simulation tools needed to handle the new high-frequency reality.