Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) designs, develops and commercialises power transistors and computer chips using gallium nitride (GaN) instead of silicon.
GaN-powered devices offer significantly higher performance than their silicon-based counterparts, enabling radical improvements in energy efficiency and compactness in the sustainable electronics field.
CGD launched a new series of products this year to support high-power applications, including data centres and motor drives. Currently, partnering with a range of companies to get its technology to market.
“We are thrilled to be in a position to deliver several products to market following decades of leading research in the reliability of power devices.”
ICeGaN™ produce energy efficiencies higher than 99%
Built on a decade of research from the Electrical Power and Energy Conversion Group in the Department of Engineering, CGD was co-founded by Dr Giorgia Longobardi and Professor Florin Udrea. The company was created to develop opportunities arising from the team’s proprietary application of gallium nitride (GaN) to the silicon-based semiconductor transistor manufacturing process.
CGD’s engineers have developed a range of GaN power devices, ICeGaN™, that are much higher performing than state-of-the-art silicon-based devices, enabling significant reductions in the size and weight of power converters, while producing energy efficiencies higher than 99%.
In November 2016, we announced that Cambridge GaN Devices was the joint winner of our annual Postdoc Business Plan Competition, taking home a £20,000 investment. Less than five years later, we again released news about the company. This time, however, the 2021 news was the completion of a $9.5 million Series A funding round.
The investment round announced in February 2021 was co-led by IQ Capital, Parkwalk Advisors, and BGF, and was joined by Cambridge Enterprise, Foresight Williams, Martlet Capital, Cambridge Angels, and Cambridge Capital Group. CDG is using the funds to enlarge its product portfolio, expand its markets globally, and double the size of its team creating more sustainable electronics.
The company’s range of ICeGaN™ transistors is customised for applications in critical markets, such as consumer and industrial Switch Mode Power Supply, lighting, data centres, and electric or hybrid electric vehicles. The higher efficiency of CGD devices, combined with their ease of use, will mean CGD GaN can easily replace silicon in key applications. CGD devices will also enable more compact power systems and better use of energy resources.
Recently, CGD signed an agreement with Chicony Power Technology and Cambridge University Technical Services to develop advanced, high power-density adapters and data centre power products.
The Cambridge GaN case study was featured in our Annual Review 2021.
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Image Credits: Cambridge GaN Devices
