The Wednesday afternoon panel discussion at this year’s PCIM Europe event was organized by Bodo’s Power Systems and designed to focus on the ability of devices such as capacitors and thermal management systems to support the advanced capabilities of new power switches made with SiC and GaN. Panelists represented Cree, CPS Technologies, Infineon, International Rectifier, SBE, SemiSouth, TranSiC/Fairchild Semiconductor and Transphorm.
The discussions ended on a high-energy note during the Q&A time, with a “heated” debate of the relative merits of SiC and GaN power switches. John Palmour, CTO for Advanced Devices at Cree took the first question about the relative defect densities in SiC and GaN. He observed that “defect densities make a difference.”