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Meet Baseus CCGAN1205 GaN Mini Quick Charger
For decades, “silicon” has been a by-word for high-technology and advanced electronics. Silicon Valley‘s didn‘t get its name for nothing, and few materials have been so widely studied and invested in. However, recently there has been a lot of talk about a new semiconductor that outperforms silicon in almost every way. That material is gallium nitride (GaN), and if you believe the hype, silicon‘s time at the top could be coming to an end.
One of the key attributes of GaN as a semiconductor is its wide band gap of 3.4eV, compared to 1.14eV for silicon. Band gap is a complicated concept to explain, but put simply, such a wide band gap allows GaN to handle much higher voltages and temperatures than silicon. The other key stat is that GaN has 1000 times better electron mobility than silicon, allowing for much faster current flow and greatly reduced heat and energy dissipation (i.e. less waste). Put these two together and you have a material that‘s extremely efficient and highly capable in scenarios that involve a lot of power or heat.
The mostly widely publicized use of GaN in consumer technology is in wall chargers. In many ways, this is an ideal application for this material because it makes full use of its key strengths. A GaN power IC (integrated circuit) is able to handle significantly more power than a silicon power IC of the same size. In practical terms, this means you can have a 60W GaN charger that‘s the same size and weight as a 30W silicon charger.
In recent years, phone charging has been getting much more powerful, with some devices supporting 60W and above through various technologies. The trouble with these ultra-high-powered chargers though is that they can get very, very hot. Aside from being a bit inconvenient and potentially a bit alarming, these hot chargers are also very wasteful. GaN circuitry is much more suitable for high-powered chargers like this, although many of the big players in the industry have been slow to adapt. Not only is GaN much more resilient to high power and temperatures, the faster current flow greatly reduces heat dissipation, meaning the charger is less likely to feel hot to the touch.
When it comes to saving energy in wall chargers, it‘s all about gallium nitride (GaN). Each charger with this chip offers massive improvements in size, weight, and energy efficiency. This means that much less effort is needed to get the current moving, leading to faster current flow and greatly reduced heat and energy waste.