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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 50, NO. 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014

Efficiency Comparison Between Si-IGBT-Based

Drive and GaN-Based Drive
Kohei Shirabe, Member, IEEE, Mahesh M. Swamy, Member, IEEE, Jun-Koo Kang, Member, IEEE,
Masaki Hisatsune, Member, IEEE, Yifeng Wu, Member, IEEE, Don Kebort, and Jim Honea

AbstractHigh motor efficiency, lower torque ripple, close to

ideal sinusoidal motor current waveform, smaller filter size, etc.
are a few of the advantages of using high-frequency pulsewidth
modulaton (PWM) (in the range of 50 to 100 kHz) in motor drive
applications. However, higher frequency PWM is also associated
with voltage reflection and motor insulation breakdown issues.
Due to high losses, Si IGBT-based inverters cannot be operated at
high switching frequency. Work on SiC and GaN-based inverter
has progressed and variable-frequency drives (VFDs) can now be
operated efficiently at carrier frequencies in the 50 to 200 kHz
range, using these devices [1] because of extremely low turn-on
and turn-off losses. At high frequency, physical and electrical
rating of output filter reduces, thereby improving efficiency. Loss
in ac motors also reduces because of sinusoidal waveform. All the
above features put together improves system efficiency. This paper
focuses on comparing the efficiency of Si-IGBT-based drive with
a 6-in-1 GaN module-based drive, which is operating at a carrier
frequency of 100 kHz with an output sine wave filter. Experimental
results show the GaN-based drive has a better system efficiency
compared to the standard Si IGBT-based drive.
Index TermsGaN-based variable-frequency drive, highefficiency motor-drive system, high-frequency drives, output
sine-wave filter.

I. I NTRODUCTION

RADITIONALLY, insulated gate bipolar transistor

(IGBT)-based voltage-source inverter (VSI) outputs are
pulse width modulated at a carrier frequency ranging from
2.0 kHz to 15 kHz. In large power applications, the carrier
frequency is lower than that in smaller power applications due
to thermal issues pertaining to the power semiconductor in
relation with its current rating.
When high-frequency pulsewidth modulation (PWM) is impressed across the terminals of an ac motor controlled by a VSIbased drive, there are always voltage transient and insulation
breakdown issues. Efficiency of converting electrical input
Manuscript received October 19, 2012; revised January 14, 2013; accepted March 8, 2013. Date of publication November 13, 2013; date of
current version January 16, 2014. Paper 2012-IPCC-556.R1, presented at the
2012 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, Raleigh, NC, USA,
September 1520, and approved for publication in the IEEE T RANSACTIONS
ON I NDUSTRY A PPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power Converter Committee
of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
K. Shirabe, M. M. Swamy, J.-K. Kang, and M. Hisatsune are with Yaskawa
America, Inc., Waukegan, IL 60085 USA (e-mail: kohei_shirabe@yaskawa.
com; mahesh_swamy@yaskawa.com; jun_kang@yaskawa.com; mhisatsu@
yaskawa.co.jp).
Y. Wu, D. Kebort, and J. Honea are with Transphorm Inc., Goleta, CA
93317 USA (e-mail: ywu@transphormusa.com; dkebort@transphormusa.com;
jhonea@transphormusa.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2013.2290812

power to mechanical output power also suffers due to losses

associated with PWM waveforms. There are many published
studies that document these influences [3][7].
To reduce the loss in ac motors due to PWM waveform, traditionally output sine wave filters are employed. Unfortunately,
using a sine wave filter in many cases shifts some of the loss
associated with PWM from the motor to the sine wave filter.
In addition, the size and cost of the sine wave filter cannot be
ignored, especially in large power applications, where the PWM
carrier frequency cannot be increased to high values due to the
power loss constraints imposed by Si IGBTs at those power
levels.
Using the latest high-frequency SiC or GaN power switches,
it is now possible to operate efficiently a VFD with high
PWM carrier frequency [1], [2]. Higher PWM carrier frequency
allows the design of sine wave filters with a higher corner
frequency, which in turn reduces the value of the filter inductor
and filter capacitor. The size and cost of the output sine wave
filter also reduce. By supplying near to sinusoidal voltage and
current waveform into an ac motor reduces the losses associated
with PWM waveforms.
Soft magnetic materials with different chemical composition
that is tailored for high frequency PWM applications can be
developed to reduce loss in the filter inductor and improve the
overall efficiency of filtering.
In many ac motor drive applications, it is becoming necessary
to control position, speed, and torque to an ever increasing
degree of precision. Control without the use of position and
speed feedback is almost a requirement in many demanding
applications. Updating the voltage and current feedback signals
more frequently and issuing new command signals accordingly
are desired features to have in a robust controller. All of this can
be brought to bear if there is a power semiconductor device that
can react to the new command signals at an appropriately fast
rate. SiC and GaN-based semiconductor devices are beginning
to show such characteristics. It is now possible to control
kilowatts of power with the aforementioned semiconductor
devices switching in the 50 to 200 kHz range. However, it is
important to point out that considering the total time needed
to complete complicated mathematical functions for sensor-less
vector control, a practical operating carrier frequency is about
30 kHz to 50 kHz. High power VFDs are presently operated
at a PWM carrier frequency of around 2 kHz to 4 kHz due
to restrictions imposed by Si IGBTs. In the future, due to the
availability of switches like GaN and SiC, these operations can
be carried out at a PWM carrier frequency of 30 kHz to 50 kHz
thereby enabling use of smaller sized filter components that can

0093-9994 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

SHIRABE et al.: EFFICIENCY COMPARISON BETWEEN Si-IGBT-BASED DRIVE AND GaN-BASED DRIVE

567

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of a hybrid HEMT GaN module comprising of a low

voltage normally off Si MOSFET in series with a normally on high voltage
GaN HEMT device. (b) Symbol for it.

provide clean power to the motors and consequently improve

their reliability.
Though work on exploiting the benefits of high carrier frequency to achieve high speed robust control is progressing,
the present paper focuses on improvement in system efficiency
obtained on using a VFD modulated at 100 kHz with an output
sine wave filter. Experimental results are given to demonstrate
the gain in motor efficiency and system efficiency on using a
GaN-based 100 kHz VFD, operating in V/F mode.
Section II discusses the characteristics of the GaN module
employed in the test. It also points out the salient differences between Si IGBTs and GaN module used. The design
characteristics of the output sine wave filter are discussed in
Sections IIIV present experimental test results. Section VI
concludes the paper.

Fig. 2. Circuit for evaluating the switching characteristics of GaN module.

Gate driver was made by Transphorm, Inc.

II. GaN D EVICE C HARACTERISTICS

In this section, characteristics of the GaN module employed
are discussed. The unit cell device used in this paper is a GaN
hybrid HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor) module. It
is a 600 V, 30 A three-phase GaN power module bearing a
part number TPT3044M, which is an engineering prototype
developed by Transphorm. The GaN module incorporates a
normally off low-voltage Si device at the input and a normally
on high-voltage GaN HEMT at the output in a cascode form.
The combined device is normally off having a gate threshold
of +2.1 V (typical) at 1 mA drain current and a drain leakage
of 10 A (typical) at a gate-source voltage (VGS ) of 0 V
and drain-source voltage (VDS ) of 600 V. The structure of the
hybrid HEMT module employed is shown in Fig. 1 and is much
different from the type discussed in [1], which is a normally off
device with no cascode switch.

Fig. 3. Turn-on waveform with inductor current IOUT at 10 A.

In Fig. 3, the turn-on delay is measured to be 4 ns and the

turn-on rise time is measured to be 3.5 ns. This is much faster
than that achieved using a standard Si-based IGBT with similar
voltage and current rating. For example, the equivalent Si IGBT
suitable for comparison is CP30TD1-12 made by Mitsubishi.
The best achievable turn-on delay time is 80 ns and the turn-on
rise time for this IGBT is about 50 ns. Again, the reason can
be attributed to the gate-emitter characteristics of the Si IGBT
which has a total gate charge of 98 nC compared to 4.8 nC for
the cascode switch. Fig. 3 also shows that the turn-on v/t
for the GaN HEMT device is about 103 kV/sec.
B. Turn-Off Characteristics

A. Turn-On Characteristics
The circuit used for studying the switching characteristics of
the GaN module is shown in Fig. 2.
From Fig. 1, it is clear that the turn-on and turn-off characteristics of the hybrid HEMT module are influenced by the
characteristics of the series Si-based MOSFET switch that is
used as a cascode switch. This MOSFET is rated for 30 V,
11 A at a case temperature of 70 deg. C. The total switch charge
to turn on the MOSFET is 4.2 nC. The turn-on delay time is
8.2 ns and the rise time is only 11 ns, yielding an excellent
turn-on characteristics. Turn-on waveform is shown in Fig. 3.

As mentioned earlier, to switch off the GaN HEMT module,

we need to turn off the low voltage Si MOSFET. Since the
MOSFET used is low voltage type, the stored charge in the
gate-source junction is very low and it is easy to remove it
quickly to ensure fast turn off. In addition, since the device
being turned off is a MOSFET, it does not require a negative
gate drive. In fact, applying a negative voltage across gate to
source can be counterproductive, since more energy is needed
to flood the space directly under the gate structure with negative
voltage which will create positively charged holes under the
gate structure. Movement of holes to the surface of the gate

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Fig. 4. Turn-off waveform with inductor current IOUT at 10 A.

requires movement through a resistive channel which is responsible for power loss. Also, during turn-on process, this charge
needs to be replaced with electrons to establish a conducting
channel. The extra charge concentration will require extra
power and more time to remove this charge, which increases
turn-off delay time and increases turn-off gate drive power.
Hence, an optimal solution will be to simply apply zero volts so
that the gate-source junction is shorted with the gate resistance
in the circuit. Sometimes, if the trace between the gate driver
board and the GaN HEMT device is unavoidably long, then
one may consider applying a low negative voltage to quickly
discharge the parasitic capacitance of the trace. In the testing
done here, no negative gate voltage was applied. The turn-off
characteristics are shown in Fig. 4.
From Fig. 4, it is observed that the turn-off time is about
15 ns. This is much faster than that achievable using a standard
Si-based IGBT with similar voltage and current rating. The best
achievable turn-off time for CP30TD1-12 per the manufacturer
is about 300 ns, with enough negative gate drive. The reason
can be attributed to the fact that unlike MOSFETs, the IGBT
has an additional junction, which contributes to tail current
during turn-off process. This is instrumental in the slower turnoff characteristics observed in IGBTs compared to MOSFETs.
The additional junction also causes parasitic latch up problems
as described in [8]. In order to overcome this latch-up problem,
it is advisable to provide negative gate voltage in case of IGBTs
[8]. In Fig. 4, the turn-off delay is measured to be 10 ns and
the turn-off fall rise time is measured to be 7 ns. The turn-off
v/t is seen to be about 53 kV/s.
C. No Free Wheeling Diode in GaN HEMT
It is important to point out that the basic high voltage GaNbased HEMT device is a bidirectional module with high voltage
blocking characteristics when VDS > 0. The actual conducting
part of the HEMT device is a channel of pure electron flow
in a crystalline structure with no junctions. Hence, current can
flow in either direction. Hence, when the source voltage is
more positive with respect to the drain terminal, then current
can flow in the reverse direction quite efficiently. The current
in the cascode MOSFET flows through the body diode of the

Fig. 5.

Empirically obtained switching loss versus inductor current.

Fig. 6. (a) Schematic of an output LC filter for PWM filtering; (b) Transfer
function of the LC output filter with a load. Red. fc = 3 kHz and fr = 827 Hz;
Brown. fc = 100 kHz and fr = 25 kHz.

MOSFET, which has quite good intrinsic turn-on and turnoff characteristics. Since the cascode switch is a low-voltage
switch, it has a short drift region with little charge holding
capacity. This significantly reduces the reverse recovery charge,
Qrr and makes it fast to turn off with little power loss. The body
diode of the MOSFET used in the GaN HEMT module here has
a forward drop of only 1 V and has a typical reverse recovery
time of 14 ns. The reverse recover charge stored when the
body diode gets reverse biased (Qrr ) is typically about 40 nC
at 400 V, making it to turn on and turn off very fast with
little power loss. Typical values of reverse recovery current
for comparably rated Si IGBT are 200 ns with a Qrr value of
approximately 900 nC. This is one of the reasons why a Si
IGBT cannot be switched at 100 s of kHz.
Since, there is physically no body diode across the GaN
HEMT device, it has low losses during turn off and is well
suited for inverter application in an H-bridge configuration. It
should be pointed out here that the GaN device characteristic
does not show the device current. This is because any current

SHIRABE et al.: EFFICIENCY COMPARISON BETWEEN Si-IGBT-BASED DRIVE AND GaN-BASED DRIVE

Fig. 7.

569

Schematic of the test setup for the GaN-based drive.

measuring method would add inductance disrupting the operation integrity during such high speed operation.
Traditionally current and voltage waveforms of the switching
semiconductor are measured and switching losses are calculated through mathematical integration. However, with GaN,
the switching speed is 1050 times faster. Hence, as mentioned
earlier, insertion of a current probe causes unwanted inductance, disrupting the operation integrity and leading to unsafe
spikes. Due to this reason, the only effective way to characterized loss is extracted by efficiency tests of dc-dc converter at
various current and frequencies. Switching loss characteristic
of the module used here is experimentally obtained using the
circuit of Fig. 2 and is reported here in Fig. 5.
III. O UTPUT S INE WAVE F ILTER C HARACTERISTICS
As mentioned in the Introduction section, traditionally PWM
waveforms are applied across ac motor terminals to operate
them at variable speed to achieve desired performance. However, ac motors respond to only the fundamental components
and the harmonics associated with PWM wave form manifest
themselves as loss in electric motors. This reduces the overall
system efficiency. One way around this is to filter the PWM
waveform using output sine wave filters but as mentioned earlier, a significant part of the loss in the motor is simply moved to
the filter thereby not affecting the overall system efficiency to a
great extent. When the processed power is large, the switching
frequency is low which makes the filter bulky and expensive.
Given the fact that high speed switches that can process large
amounts of power are in near sight, it is conceivable that the sine
wave filters can be designed to have a higher corner frequency,
thereby reducing their size and improving the filter efficiency
since filtering very high frequency components can be achieved
using soft magnetic material that are characterized by low core
losses. In other words, making use of power switches that can
be efficiently switched at higher switching frequency, one could
design small sized, more efficient output sine wave filters. The
combination of efficient power switches, small sized low loss
sine wave filter can yield drive systems that are more efficient
than the drive systems that are presently in use.

Fig. 8. Photograph of GaN module and inverter with the GaN module. Sample
shown was used for the test. Electrical specifications: VLL (output) = 230 V,
Output current Io = 14 A, 6-in-1 module.

In this section, an attempt is made to design a high frequency

sine wave filter using soft magnetic material that has low loss
and good performance. Such a filter is used in conjunction with
the GaN HEMT device in a 6-in-1 module VFD configuration,
operating in V/F mode at a switching frequency of 100 kHz.
The output sine wave filter shown in Fig. 6(a) is used to filter
the output PWM waveform so that the line-line voltage at the
motor terminals is sinusoidal. This also helps in alleviating the
problems associated with high v/t of the output voltage that
causes high surge voltages at the motor terminals.
The resonance frequency (fr ) of the sine wave filter is
chosen to be in between the output fundamental frequency
fout and the carrier frequency fc . However, while selecting
the resonant frequency, influence of the leakage inductance of
the motor should also be considered. The resonance frequency
equation uses the value of filter inductance LF , and the filter
capacitance CF as given by
fr =

1
.
2 LF CF

(1)

To limit the carrier-frequency current into the filter capacitor,

LF should be large. However, excessively large values for LF
should be avoided to limit the fundamental frequency voltage
drop across it under loaded conditions.
The resonance frequency fr should be in between the fundamental output frequency fout , and carrier frequency fc , i.e.,

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Fig. 9. Schematic of the test setup for the Si-based drive operating with a carrier frequency of 15 kHz.

fout  fr  fc . Since it is now possible to use a high carrier

frequency, the value of fr can be chosen to be much higher than
traditionally done with IGBT drives. From (1), it is clear that
higher resonant frequency selection yields a much lower value
for the inductance and capacitance of the output sine wave filter.
The transfer function for a typical LC filter for filtering the
PWM waveform is shown in Fig. 6(b). The attenuation above
the cutoff frequency is high and the filter attenuates most of
the high frequency component. Since the resonant frequency
is much lower than the carrier frequency, damping resistors
are not practically requiredcore loss component in the filter
inductor can be used to achieve some damping. The torque
producing fundamental components (low frequency) are not
filtered and are allowed to pass. The filter capacitor is required
to have high current handling capacity because of the high frequency current components that flow into it. However, at higher
carrier frequencies, the value of the filter capacitor needed is
small and so the capacitor current is well contained. Studies
have shown that keeping the inverter switching frequency to be
at least five to seven times the resonant frequency of the lowpass filter yields optimum results.
In Fig. 5(b), the traditional filter (shown in red color) is
designed with a resonant frequency of 480 Hz for a carrier
frequency of 3 kHz. Including the load impedance, the resonant
frequency is 827 Hz (LF = 2.1 mH, CF = 18 F). Increasing
the carrier frequency to 100 kHz (shown in brown color) allows
the resonant frequency to be as high as 25 kHz. The resonating
inductor needed is only 69 H. The resonating capacitor needed
is only 0.6 F. This allows for significant reduction in size and
cost of the filter.
Fig. 6(b) also shows that having the capability of switching
the inverter switches at 100 kHz allows operation at higher
fundamental frequency which is useful in many high speed
applications, like centrifuges, compressors, etc.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP AND T EST R ESULTS
Tests were conducted to compare the inverter and system
efficiency between a Si-based drive and a GaN-based drive.
This section discusses the results obtained from these tests. The

test setup is shown in Fig. 7. The filter inductor in the case of

GaN-based drive is 0.22 mH and the filter capacitor is 0.1 F,
resulting in an approximate corner frequency of 34 kHz. Both
the Si-based drive and the GaN-based drives were powered
from an external dc power source. Pin is the electrical input
power, Po is the ac output power, and Pm is the mechanical
shaft power. Photograph of a GaN inverter is shown in Fig. 8.
Schematic of the test setup employing a standard IGBT-based
drive is shown in Fig. 9.
For efficiency calculations, the dc input is considered as
the electrical input power. Figs. 7 and 9 also show the points
where measurements were made. It is important to note that the
GaN-based inverter was operated with a sine wave filter and
the loss of sine wave filter is included in the drive efficiency
calculations, while the Si-based inverter was operated without
any output sine wave filter.
A. Test Results
Efficiency test results are given in Table I for GaN-based
drive and in Table II for the standard Si-based drive made by
Yaskawa. Overall, system efficiency is measured taking the
transducer power as output and dc power as input. The system
is loaded in steps of 0.2 kW up to the rated power of 2.0 kW.
Command frequency for both drives is kept at 60 Hz. Efficiency
plots are shown in Fig. 10.
It should be noted that the Si IGBT-based inverter was
tested with no sine wave filter. This was deliberately done to
investigate the extra losses that are incurred in the ac motor due
to PWM waveform. The distance between the drive and the ac
motor in both cases was maintained at 3 m.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, the operating characteristics of a normally
on GaN HEMT device with a normally off low voltage Sibased MOSFET in cascode have been discussed. It has been
shown that the cascode combination is well suited for bridge
configurations since the resulting device has the advantage of
low switching losses, low conduction losses, and operation that

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571

TABLE I
M EASURED E FFICIENCY FOR GaN-BASED D RIVE

TABLE II
M EASURED E FFICIENCY FOR Si-IGBT D RIVE

Fig. 10. (a) Efficiency of inverter with respect to output electrical power (without motor efficiency). (b) System efficiency (mechanical output power to electrical
input power) as a function of mechanical output power.

does not require any external freewheeling diode. Advantages

of high PWM carrier frequency have also been highlighted. Test
results show that the inverter efficiency as well as the system
efficiency is higher using a GaN-based PWM drive operating
at a carrier frequency of 100 kHz. It is important to point out
that most variable frequency applications do not operate at rated
load all the time. Statistically speaking, most pump and fan
applications that use V/F mode of operation, operate at around
50% to 70% load condition. From the results presented here, the

light load system efficiency observed for the GaN-based VFD

system is much better than that for the Si IGBT-based VFD
system.
Further, GaN-based drive with an output sine wave filter has
better efficiency compared to the Si-based drive without a sine
wave filter. In other words, the switching and conduction loss in
the 6-in-1 GaN HEMT device operating at 100 kHz is seen to be
much lower than Si-based IGBT inverter operating at 15 kHz.
The size of the output sine wave filter is very small as can be

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seen in Fig. 7. The loss in the sine wave filter is much lower than
the extra losses seen in the ac motor when no filter was used.
The system tested here is rated for 2.0 kW. However, the basic
idea that GaN-based drive yields a better system efficiency
compared to Si-IGBT-based drive holds true for larger power
ratings as well. The absence of audible PWM noise in the motor
and in the output sine wave filter was noticeable.
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[1] M. Ishida, Y. Uemoto, T. Ueda, T. Tanaka, and D. Ueda, GaN Switching
power devices, in Proc. Int. Power Electron. Conf., 2010, pp. 10141017.
[2] T. Morita, S. Tamura, Y. Anda, M. Ishida, Y. Uemoto, T. Ueda, T. Tanaka,
and D. Ueda, 99.3% efficiency of three-phase inverter for motor drive
using GaN-based gate injection transistors, in Proc. Int. Power Electron.
Conf., 2011, pp. 481484.
[3] M. J. Melfi, Quantifying the energy efficiency of motors on inverters,
IEEE Ind. Appl. Mag., pp. 3743, Nov./Dec. 2011.
[4] Induction Motors Fed by PWM Frequency Inverters, WEG Motors,
Technical Guide, Publication 028, Dec. 2009. [Online]. Available: www.
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[5] A. Boglietti, A. Cavagnino, and A. M. Knight, Isolating the impact of
PWM modulation on motor iron losses, in Conf. Rec. IEEE IAS Annu.
Meeting, 2008, pp. 17.
[6] D. M. Ionel, M. Popescu, M. I. McGilp, T. J. E. Miller, S. J. Dellinger, and
R. J. Heideman, Computation of core losses in electrical machines using
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no. 6, pp. 15541564, Nov./Dec. 2007.
[7] A. Boglietti, A. Cavagnino, and M. Lazzari, Fast method for the iron
loss prediction in inverter-fed induction motors, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl.,
vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 806811, Mar./Apr. 2010.
[8] C. J. Melhourne and L. Tang, Transient effects of PWM drives on induction motors, in Conf. Rec. IEEE IAS Annu. Meeting, 1995, pp. 5965.
[9] M. M. Swamy, T. Kume, and N. Takada, An efficient resonant gate-drive
scheme for high-frequency applications, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 48,
no. 4, pp. 14181431, Jul./Aug. 2012.
[10] G. Deboy, N. Marz, J. P. Stengl, H. Strack, J. Tihanyi, and H. Weber, A
new generation of high voltage MOSFETs breaks the limit line of silicon,
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[11] D. Christen, U. Badstuebner, J. Biela, and J. W. Kolar, Calorimetric
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Power Electron. Conf., 2010, pp. 14381445.

Kohei Shirabe (M11) received the B.S. and M.S.

degrees in electrical engineering from Nagasaki
University, Nagasaki, Japan, in 2004 and 2006,
respectively.
In 2006, he joined Yaskawa Electric Corp.,
Kitakyushu, Japan. From 2006 to 2011, he was a Senior Engineer and developed industrial inverter products. He joined Yaskawa America, Inc., Waukegan,
IL, USA, in 2011 as an R&D Engineer, where he is
currently working in the area of motor drives. His
interests include wide-band-gap devices, high-speed
switching circuits, and power topology research.

Mahesh M. Swamy (S86M92) received the

B.Eng. degree from MMM Engineering College,
Gorakhpur, India, in 1983, the M.S(Eng.) degree
from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,
India, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada, in 1991.
In 1992, he joined Energy Management Corporation, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, as a Senior Research
Engineer where he worked on industrial ac motor
drives. In 1996, he joined MTE Corporation as the
Director of Engineering. Since 1997, he has been
with the R&D group at Yaskawa America, Inc., Waukegan, IL, USA. His
interests are in inverter drives and power electronics.
Dr. Swamy is an active member of the IEEE Industry Applications, IEEE
Power Electronics, and IEEE Industrial Electronics Societies.

Jun-Koo Kang (M93) received the B.S., M.S., and

Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Seoul
National University, Seoul, Korea.
From 1988 to 1997, he was with the R&D Center
of LG Industrial Systems where he was mainly involved in the development of general-purpose drives
and gearless elevator drives. In 1999, he joined the
Corporate R&D Center of Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Kitakyushu, Japan, where he was a Manager
in the Mechatronics R&D Department. He worked
on the development of matrix converters and other
industrial drives. He is currently with Yaskawa America Inc., Waukegan,
IL, USA.

Masaki Hisatsune (M11) received the B.S. and

M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Kyushu
Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan, in 1992 and
1994, respectively.
In 1994, he joined Yaskawa Electric Corporation
as an Engineer in the Motor Design Division. He
served as a Motor Design Engineer and a Position
Sensor Design Engineer for motor drives. He was
transferred to Yaskawa America, Inc., Waukegan, IL,
USA, in 2011 and remained there until May 2013.
He then became a Research Engineer in the Energy
Conversion Technology Division of Yaskawa Electric Corporation.

Yifeng Wu (M98) received the Ph.D. degree from

the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA,
USA, in 1997 with a thesis on GaN power highelectron-mobility-transistors.
He served as a Lead Scientist for GaN microwave
and millimeter-wave power devices at WideGap
Technology LLC and Cree Inc. for 11 years. He
joined Transphorm Inc., Goleta, CA, USA, in 2008
and is currently Vice President of Product Development and Applications. He has made sustained contributions to GaN microwave and power electronics.
He extended the power density records of microwave transistors multiple times,
holds 47 patents, and authored many high-impact papers resulting in more than
5000 citations in Google Scholar.

Don Kebort received the A.A. degree from Lincoln

Technical Institute in 2000.
He joined the application development group at
Transphorm Inc., Goleta, CA, USA, in 2010, where
he is primarily focused on showcasing Transphorms
GaN power technology in motor drive applications.
His prior experience consists of circuit design and
embedded firmware development for the optical telecom industry, working for a series of start-up companies in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, as well as JDS
Uniphase, Milpitas, CA, USA.

Jim Honea received the B.S. and M.S. degrees

in electrical engineering from the University of
Arkansas Fayetteville, AR, USA, in 1981 and 1986,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and
computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, in 2011.
Since 2007, he has been working in applications engineering at Transphorm Inc., Goleta, CA,
USA, developing applications of high-voltage GaN
HEMTs for power conversion. Previously, he held
positions in design engineering and engineering
management for Topcon Positioning Systems and for Topcon-Sauer-Danfoss
Integrated Controls, and in IC design for General Electric.