At November’s Electronica trade show in Munich, fabless, clean-tech semiconductor company Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) signed a deal with Dutch firm Neways Electronics to develop high efficiency, photovoltaic solar inverters based on gallium nitride (GaN) technology.

CGD develops a range of energy-efficient GaN-based power devices to make greener electronics possible. Neways is an innovator in electronics for smart mobility, semiconductors and connectivity.

“Neways and CGD are perfectly aligned in our commitment to a sustainable future based on clean tech energy,” said Giorgia Longobardi, CGD CEO. “We believe that this programme to jointly develop photo-voltaic products that lead the world in terms of efficiency and performance will move the market forward and contribute to a better world.”

Hans Ketelaars, chief technology officer at Neways, added: “Neways is committed to working with like-minded innovative companies to bring state-of-the-art, sustainable energy to the market. The combination of Neways’ extensive systems experience and CGD’s high-efficiency, rugged and simple-to-use GaN devices is a perfect fit for this application.”

The partnership, which was forged after the two companies met while collaborating on the European-funded GaNext project, has already borne fruit. At Electronica, visitors saw a demo of a 3kW photovoltaic inverter jointly developed by the two companies. Using eight CGD65A055S2 GaN transistors, this transformer-less, compact design achieves a power density of 1kW/L. With a V_in of 150-350V DC, a V_out of 230V AC and a switching frequency of 350kHz, the design has a maximum efficiency of 99.22%

CGD is a fabless semiconductor company spun-out by Florin Udrea and Giorgia Longobardi from Cambridge University in 2016 to exploit technology in power devices. Its mission is to shape the future of power electronics by delivering the most efficient and easy-to-use transistor. CGD designs, develops and commercialises GaN transistors and ICs enabling a step change in energy efficiency and compactness and is suitable for high volume production. The firm’s ICeGaN technology is protected by an IP portfolio. In addition to a multi-million-pound seed fund and series A private investments, CGD has secured four projects funded by iUK, BEIS and EU (Penta).

With more than 50 years’ experience, Neways develops and produces electronics that facilitate trends around global ESG themes. It has team of more than 2500 specialists across the Netherlands, Germany, USA, China, Czech Republic and Slovakia working on EV charging, electric power trains, digitising health, sustainable agriculture, producing microchips and more.