Infineon Technologies AG has launched the CoolGaN™ Bidirectional Switch (BDS) 650 V G5, a state-of-the-art gallium nitride (GaN) power switch designed to handle bidirectional current and voltage with active blocking capabilities. This innovative device leverages a common-drain topology and dual-gate structure, integrating Infineon’s advanced Gate Injection Transistor (GIT) technology to deliver a monolithic, bidirectional switch based on the company's proven CoolGaN platform. It serves as a high-efficiency alternative to conventional back-to-back switch configurations often used in power converters.

The CoolGaN BDS offers numerous benefits for modern power conversion architectures. By combining two switches into a single device, it streamlines bidirectional converter topologies, enabling single-stage power conversion and eliminating the need for multiple conversion stages. This not only enhances efficiency and reliability but also allows for more compact and cost-effective system designs. Mini inverter applications further benefit from increased power density and reduced component count, simplifying manufacturing and lowering overall costs. Additionally, the BDS enables advanced grid functionalities such as reactive power compensation and bidirectional energy flow.

This breakthrough component opens new possibilities across a wide range of applications:

• Microinverters: The CoolGaN BDS simplifies the design of microinverters for residential and commercial solar installations, improving efficiency and reducing form factor and system costs.
• Energy Storage Systems (ESS): In ESS applications like battery charging and discharging, the BDS enhances energy conversion performance and operational reliability.
• Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging: In EV infrastructure, the switch enables faster, more efficient charging and supports Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) capabilities, allowing energy stored in EV batteries to be returned to the grid.
• Motor Control: The CoolGaN BDS is ideal for current source inverter (CSI) configurations in industrial motor drives. Compared to traditional voltage source inverters (VSI), CSIs offer key advantages:
• Produce sinusoidal output voltage for longer cable runs and improved fault tolerance.
• Use inductors instead of DC-link capacitors for better thermal stability and short-circuit robustness.
• Deliver higher efficiency under partial load, reduced EMI, and scalable parallel operation.
• AI Data Centers: In high-performance AI server power systems, the BDS enables higher switching frequencies and power density in topologies like Vienna rectifiers and H4 PFC. A single CoolGaN BDS can replace two discrete switches, leading to lower component count, size, cost, and overall power loss.