What is a GaN PD charger? Advantages and Specifications

What is GaN PD charger? Advantages and Specifications

The charging technology has gone through a massive improvement over the years. If you tend to travel a lot, it is always advisable to use a charger that can work across all your devices. The GaN chargers are what would help you get access to such an excellent alternative.

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Also Read: Comparing QC 5.0 vs PD 3.1

Table of Contents

What is a GaN PD Charger?

The USB specification referred to as Power Delivery has effectively provided you with excellent fast charging options never thought of before. The PD technology can help you charge your devices faster. That would mean you would need to wait a lot less to get your devices charged to up to 100 percent.

The new range of chargers that employ GaN technology or gallium nitride chargers offer you the new Power Delivery technology in smaller form factors but at a little high price.

The GaN technology is designed to offer you three times better efficiency when compared to the other silicone-based chargers. They are smaller and more portable. They let you charge your devices ten times faster than a standard charger.

GaN stands for Gallium Nitride. It is a glass-like semiconductor material. Just like the other silicone materials, it helps you conduct electricity. But, it achieves this task at a significantly faster speed and offers excellent power efficiency.

The GaN technology has been used on several devices since the 1990s but was not much used as a mainstream technology. The technology was in use on lasers, LEDs, and Blu-rays.

The GaN technology is now coming to the chargers for the first time, which is precisely what makes our chargers for laptops and smartphones relatively more minor in size.

Why is Gallium Nitride better than Silicon?

You may perhaps have that all-important query in your mind. What makes Gallium Nitride a better option than silicon. The semiconductors have something called a bandgap. If the bandgap is smaller, the flow of electricity would be better. Silicon has a 1.12 eV bandgap, and Gallium Nitride has a 3.4 eV bandgap.

That would make the silicon a better option for a better flow of electricity than the Gallium Nitride. But the small bandgap is also associated with a lot of energy loss.

In case the bandgap is too tiny, the photons are likely to get more energy and thus lose lots of energy. The Gallium Nitride, on the other hand, comes with a healthy bandgap and thus ensures that more voltage is sustained. This also helps in avoiding the unwanted loss of energy.

Moreover, the Gallium Nitride can help you survive at the highest temperatures. This will be helpful in faster processing, which provides you access to one of the excellent experiences in a better charging speed coupled with an efficient energy flow.

The advantages of Gallium Nitride or GaN Chargers

To begin with, the GaN chargers are smaller than the regular chargers. That is primarily because the GaN chargers do not require you to have many components, as in the case of the standard chargers. That would also make them conduct a far higher voltage over time.

“All semiconductor materials have what is called a bandgap. This is a power range in a solid where no electrons can exist. Simply put, a bandgap is related to how well a stable material can conduct electricity. Gallium nitride has a 3.4 eV bandgap, compared to silicon’s 1.12 eV bandgap. Gallium nitride’s wider bandgap means it can sustain more elevated voltages and higher temperatures than silicon.”

In addition to transferring the current more efficiently, the GaN chargers can also provide a great degree of efficacy and efficiency in avoiding heat loss.

Are GaN Chargers Compatible With Multiple Devices?

The GaN chargers are smaller and come with the USB type C power delivery. If you are unaware, the Power Delivery is a fast charging protocol. You will be able to provide an increased power delivery level compared to the standard chargers. You can expect the GaN chargers to transfer 70 percent faster performance than a standard charger.

Not every device is compatible with the USB C PD. However, if you are an iPhone user, you can get the functionality supported on iPhone 8 and later. The feature is available on a few of the latest range of Android devices as well.

The Pros and Cons of GaN PD Chargers:

Having gone through the primary features and benefits of the GaN chargers, let us now explore the Pros and Cons offered by these chargers and how they provide you with an enhanced experience.

Pros

Better conversion of AC power into DC power.
Faster charging with an excellent power efficiency
Highly portable
A small form factor

Cons

Expensive than the regular silicon chargers

How do GaN Chargers work?

During the initial days of mobile phone technology, the chargers were limited to a charging speed capacity of just around 5 Watts. However, the latest technologies ensured that the batteries can have a better and higher charging capacity, and energy efficiency.

The Power Delivery technology used in the new chargers can detect voltage and amperage that a battery can accept and communicate this information to the charging brick. The phone will also communicate to the charging brick the type of USB connection in use, the charging level of the battery, and a host of other details.

In essence, the modern-day charging bricks have been developed as microcomputers and have a small board that analyses the information from your device, processes it, and then adjusts the output as per the individual needs. However, this information and processing make the chargers assume a more prominent and heavier size.

That is precisely where the GaN chargers can come in handy. The GaN, discovered as a new alternative to Silicon, offers a better option for conducting higher voltage over more extended periods.

You would also find the electrical currents passing faster through them, thereby providing you with faster processing. This better conductivity ensures that the charger has higher efficiency.

This has assisted the manufacturers in coming up with compact and denser chips and bricks. The GaN chips can also have a better voltage capacity and are resistant to heat. This is what would make them a perfect choice for power transfer applications.

Are GaN chips used only with chargers?

GaN chips are not only about charging capabilities. The GaN technology has long been used in LEDs. They are also used in white LEDs and bright, daylight-visible LED screens. The Blu-ray players also use a GaN-based blue laser.

This has been able to produce better precision and assists you in reading the information much closer. That is why Blu-ray discs are capable of holding more information as compared to regular DVDs.

The GaN chips have also been used in wireless and radio frequency infrastructure. This is because they can work more efficiently in a high-voltage environment. They can also be found on electric cars because of their powerful heat-resistant properties.

GaN chips are also observed in military applications. They are also used on the active electronically scanned array radars.

Why don’t we have GaN-based computers?

The GaN chips have been used in various applications, as we have already found out in the above discussion. While they are an excellent option for computer manufacturing, the cost can be extremely high.

The cost is one of the most critical factors that would make it unsuitable for computer manufacturing. That apart, moving to GaN technology necessitates the development of new designs, equipment, and processes. That would perhaps take a while until it is wholly developed and manufacturers can work with silicon and GaN material.

Where can you buy GaN chargers?

The GaN chargers are not yet as widespread as their silicon counterparts. However, manufacturers like Anker and RAVPower have been manufacturing GaN-based chargers. These chargers are capable of offering you a USB-C power delivery.

The Anker charger has been around for some time and has been quite popular with iPhone users. It is a 30-watt charger with full charging capability. It can work with phones, tablets, laptops, and many more.

The Closing Thoughts

The advent of GaN chargers has been exciting and unique in almost every way. The best option that these chargers offer you is that you will need to carry less number of chargers irrespective of whether you have so many devices. Moreover, you will be able to charge your devices much faster.