CGD’s engineering expertise in GaN technology will complement Ricardo’s extensive in-house automotive experience and capabilities to help achieve the objective of designing and developing an advanced high-efficiency traction inverter.

As well as utilising GaN for an efficient, optimised traction inverter design, Project SUITE will also see the incorporation of intelligent technologies around the vehicle that will bring benefits such as reduced and automated charging, longer range, and reduced energy bills.

Dan Murphy | Senior Director Product Management, CGD “This is an exciting project for CGD to be involved with and underlines the value and importance of practical, easily adoptable GaN technologies to the necessary, continued evolution of EVs, and in this instance specifically next generation traction inverters. The expertise and resource of the consortium members, UK government backing, and Nissan as the lead are all constituent parts that will drive a highly valuable and useable outcome.”

Temoc Rodriguez | Global Technical Expert in Electric Propulsion Systems, Ricardo “Ricardo is a pioneer in the use of GaN semiconductor technology in high-power applications, and this project is the culmination of our R&D efforts over the last five years. This new product will be the first-of-a-kind for next-generation traction inverters that will operate at high efficiency at a reduced cost.”

About ICeGaN® CGD’s proprietary monolithic ICeGaN® technology, brings higher efficiency and greater ease of use as ICeGaN devices are driven the same way as a conventional silicon or silicon carbide device. Unlike conventional GaN, this makes paralleling easily achievable as it eliminates the challenges of balancing the gate drive voltages and generating the correct negative voltage to turn the device off. The integrated ICeGaN circuit also ensures high gate robustness up to 80V and can also include other valuable features such as slew rate control and DESAT protection.

About Cambridge GaN Devices Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) designs, develops and commercialises GaN transistors and ICs enabling a radical step in energy efficiency and compactness. Our mission is to bring innovation into everyday life by delivering effortless energy-efficient GaN solutions. CGD’s ICeGaN® technology is proven suitable for high-volume production, and the company is rapidly scaling up with manufacturing and customer partnerships in place. A fabless enterprise under the leadership of CEO Fabio Necco, a power semiconductor industry veteran, CGD was spun out from Cambridge University. Its founders, CMO Dr. Giorgia Longobardi, and CTO Professor Florin Udrea, still retain strong links with the world-renowned High Voltage Microelectronics and Sensors group (HVMS) at the University. CGD’s ICeGaN HEMT technology is protected by a strong and constantly growing IP portfolio, resulting from the company's commitment to innovation. The technical and commercial expertise of the CGD team, combined with an extensive track record in the power electronics market, has been fundamental to the market acceptance of its proprietary technology.