EPC has announced the availability of the EPC9162, a bi-directional buck or reverse-boost converter. This demonstration board features the 100 V EPC2052 for the synchronous converter, and the EPC2038 in the synchronous bootstrap FET circuit.

The EPC9162 is by default programmed as a boost converter operating at 12 V input to 60 V / 50 W output. However, the board can also be operated as a buck converter at 48 V input to 12 V / 60 W output. The fast-switching speed of eGaN FETs significantly reduces switching losses for higher efficiency operation. To make it simple for a power supply designer to easily replicate this design, all supporting materials for this board including schematic, bills of materials, and Gerber files are available on the EPC website.

The EPC9162 provides a peak efficiency, from 12 V to 60 V / 0.85 A, of 95.3 % and a light load efficiency of 86 % with only a 40 °C temperature rise despite the small size of the eGaN FETs. “In applications where light-load efficiency is critical, such as LED backlighting for laptops and monitors, the low switching losses of eGaN FETs provide high efficiency with very low temperature rise to prevent equipment overheating,” said Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. “The synchronous boost topology is a simple, low-cost solution for power system designers.”

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