Infineon Announces Next Generation CoolGaN Transistor Families

Infineon Technologies announced two new generations of high voltage (HV) and medium voltage (MV) CoolGaN devices which now enable Gallium Nitride (GaN) to be used in voltage classes from 40V to 700V in a broader array of applications that help drive digitalization and decarbonization. These two product families, now expanded with the portfolio that resulted from the GaN Systems acquisition, are manufactured on high performance 8-inch in-house foundry processes in Kulim (Malaysia) and Villach (Austria).

In this article for audioXpress, Bill Reeve helps us to make sense of a misunderstood circuit. A capacitance multiplier is useful as a power supply low-pass filter. It is commonly said that, like Miller capacitance, the capacitor’s value in this circuit is “multiplied” by the transistor gain (β) to lower the filter’s pole frequency. The transistor-enhanced filter does that and more, as the article explains in detail. This article, an excellent tutorial on analog circuit design, was originally published in audioXpress, August 2012.

Panasonic Corporation announced that it will start mass production of a high-speed gate driver (AN34092B) optimized for driving its GaN power transistor X-GaN in November 2016. The company will also start mass production of two types of X-GaN (PGA26E07BA and PGA26E19BA) and provide solutions in combination with high-speed gate drivers. The high-speed gate driver for X-GaN power transistors contributes to space and energy savings in power conversion applications.

It’s hard to keep track how semiconductor companies evolve given the pace of mergers, spin-offs and acquisitions. ON Semiconductor, a relatively young player in the industry but increasingly crucial for the audio industry, announced it will acquire one of the most iconic companies, Fairchild Semiconductor, for $2.4 Billion in Cash. The acquisition creates the global leader in the power semiconductor market, they say.

Focal Press released the 2nd edition of Douglas Self’ Small Signal Audio Design originally published in 2010 and a valuable resource on audio circuitry, components and dealing with audio electronics. The second edition is expanded with ADCs and DACs, microcontrollers, more coverage of discrete op amp design, and a completely new chapter on headphone amplifiers.

With a little know-how and some basic parts, you can design a hybrid amplifier in fairly short order. This project combines the best attributes of both tube and transistor technologies.

Which sounds better — a tube or solid-state amp? The "Great Debate" has been going on for decades. Now it's time to put the debate to rest. In audioXpress, November 2012, Richard Honeycutt's published this article exploring how to detect audio amplifiers’s differences in sound and the need for a correct subjective evaluation process of components and systems.