What Is a GaN Charger, and Why Will You Want One?

RV_ · April 3, 2021

I had this link in another post at the bottom and most here don't read links.

Excerpt:

"Gallium Nitride (GaN) chargers were everywhere at CES 2020. This modern alternative to silicon means smaller, more efficient chargers and power bricks are on the way. Here’s how it works.

The Advantages of a Gallium Nitride Charger

GaN chargers are physically smaller than current chargers. This is because gallium nitride chargers don’t require as many components as silicon chargers. The material is able to conduct far higher voltages over time than silicon.

GaN chargers are not only more efficient at transferring current, but this also means less energy is lost to heat. So, more energy goes to whatever you’re trying to charge. When components are more efficient at passing energy to your devices, you generally require less of them.

What Is Gallium Nitride?

Gallium nitride is a semiconductor material that rose to prominence in the 1990s through the manufacture of LEDs. GaN was used to create the first white LEDs, blue lasers, and full color LED displays you could see in daylight. In Blu-ray DVD players, GaN produces the blue light that reads the data from the DVD.

It appears GaN will soon replace silicon in many areas. Silicon manufacturers have worked tirelessly for decades to improve silicon-based transistors. According to Moore’s Law (named after the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and, later, the CEO of Intel, Gordon Moore), the number of transistors in an integrated silicon circuit doubles about every two years.

This observation was made in 1965, and it largely rang true for the last 50 years. In 2010, though, semiconductor advancement slowed below this pace for the first time. Many analysts (and Moore himself) predict Moore’s Law will be obsolete by 2025.

Production of GaN transistors ramped up in 2006. Improved manufacturing processes mean GaN transistors can be manufactured in the same facilities as the silicon type. This keeps costs down and encourages more silicon manufacturers to use GaN to produce transistors instead.

Why Is Gallium Nitride Superior to Silicon?

The benefits of GaN compared to silicon boil down to power efficiency.

Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, another GaN manufacturer, stated that GaN is capable of conducting electrons 1,000 times more efficiently than silicon, and with lower manufacturing costs, to boot."

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/509209/what-is-a-gan-charger-and-why-will-you-want-one/

I bought three of them: This Hyphen-X 100 Watt is behind my four cable charging station in my office, $49.99 on Amazon: My 4 port GaN charger It has smart charging and charge allocation. Charges my Surface Pro 4 & 7, as well as my New Amazon Fire HD 8+, my phones, Surface Go, all USB C. So now I can take advantage of the much higher PD (power delivery capabilities) of the USB C cables, and USB A at one end and USB whatever at the other cables I already have.

I bought this one to be next to my recliner in the Living room, $34.99 on Amazon: BaseUS GaN charger It is 65 Watts and a great performer. I use it for my phone, Surface Pro 7, Surface Go, etc. It performs surprisingly well.

I bought this Rockspace three port, 65 Watt GaN charger for $39.99 on Amazon Rockspace charger I am keeping it too.

Hindsight and I would get three of the four port Hyphen-X chargers as it has it all, I now know it is reliable and is the best bang for the buck.

I know it is expensive to switch but not when you realize that you can have one four port charger for all!

I can't have any more power strips with three or four wall warts and three or four individual phone , headset, flashlight single chargers. With these you never have to worry about if the charger is strong enough. Yes the 100 watt chargers charge laptops or whatever with USB C PD (Power Delivery) ports probably faster than the stock chargers that came with them. For traveling I can bring just one of them and charge everything as long as I have the cables. But all my portable devices use USB C.

I still have a couple of Mini and Micro ( see pic below) USB devices and already have their charging cables with USB A male at one end and their USB mini/micro/C at the other and they can be used with the two USB A High power ports on the chargers. For the newer Macbooks, Surface devices, laptops etc with USB C PD ports the USB C to USB C cables are ideal. So I can charge my old stuff and new with the GaN tech too.

Rather than buy all new expensive cables I made sure my new GaN chargers have at least one USB A and two USB C ports. Two are 65 Watt and one is 100Watt. I already have charging/data cables for the devices I just do not need 20 one port old big and hot running chargers. Remember there are fast charge cables that don't do data, and fast charge cables that also do data well, and data cables that don't do fast charging as well and cables that do both. I have bought new cables and found that some that say they do fast charging don't. so I have the ones that do support it marked with an FC on the connector end with Sharpie.

So start looking at GaN chargers especially in an RV. One charger to rule them all.

Edited April 3, 2021 by RV_