Page 16 - PEN eBook October 2022

POWER SUPPLY Power Supply

This development came on top of a market that was already expanding with the emergence of more
compact equipment and greater connectivity that allowed for remote monitoring by medical teams.
In the U.S. alone, up to $265 million in services currently delivered in on-site medical facilities

could switch to a home setting by 2025, according to McKinsey & Company.

Within this, home monitoring, diagnostics, and therapeutics equipment account for over half of the
market value, making it a significant and growing market.

POWERING HOME HEALTH-CARE EQUIPMENT
As additional features are added to the latest home health-care devices, there is an increasing
requirement for more power to be delivered by the power supply. Some newer products are already
at the higher end of the power available from external supplies.

Mounting the power supply externally has several advantages. The primary benefit is that the
safety isolation, which is critical for patient-connected devices, is not a concern for the equipment
manufacturer, as they source a pre-approved unit from a power supply specialist.

GaN Will Revolutionize To maintain portability and convenience, designers are being challenged to deliver the higher power

levels in units that are not significantly bigger than their lower-power predecessors. At the heart of

Power Supplies for this challenge is power density and thermal management, as removing waste heat requires devices
such as heatsinks that add to size, weight, and cost.
Home Health-Care As power designers will know, the way to reduce waste heat is by optimizing efficiency in the

operation of a power supply. However, achieving the efficiencies required may not be possible with
Market silicon-based semiconductors.

WIDE-BANDGAP TECHNOLOGY
By Andrew Bryars, product manager at XP Power The requirement to deliver higher power levels in compact solutions is not unique to home health

care. Designers of electric vehicles and renewable power solutions (among others) face similar
These days, we are increasingly receiving medical care and monitoring outside of traditional locations challenges and are increasingly turning to so-called wide-bandgap (WBG) technology to overcome
such as hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices. This alleviates the pressure on clinical spaces due the limitations of silicon.
to an increase in available medical procedures and an aging global population that has led to an
increasing number of older people needing medical care. The bandgap refers to the energy difference between the top of the valence band and the bottom of
the conduction band. In devices that are composed of silicon carbide or gallium nitride, this bandgap
Home health care offers a more relaxing treatment experience, reducing stress and anxiety for is significantly greater, allowing the power devices to operate at higher voltages, temperatures, and

patients. New technology is also enabling home-based cosmetic applications. frequencies.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been significant growth in home health care due to a lack In GaN devices, the breakdown voltage is about 30× that of Si, allowing for higher doping levels that
of available beds and a desire to keep Covid patients segregated from the wider community as lower the on-resistance between drain and source (R ), thereby reducing conduction losses and
DS(on)
much as possible. the associated waste-heat generation.

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