From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD
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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things
small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on
turntables and tubes.


John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics
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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 11/01/2026 12:56 am, john larkin wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things
small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on
turntables and tubes.

There are actually sensible people involved in audio, and good quality amplifiers and loud speakers are worth paying for.

Audiofools pay absurd money for essentially bizarre speakers and
amplifiers that don't perform any better than regular good quality
stuff, and sometimese perform quite a bit worse.

I once gave my father some qood quality headphones - Sennheiser 480's -
and they performed a whole lot better than the equally expensive
headphones that his audio shop in Melbourne had sold him. He was
surprised. I snaffled them back after he died - my mother wasn't into headphones.
--
Bill Sloman, sydney
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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:56:18 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things
small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on
turntables and tubes.

So what else are they suited to?
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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 18:58:44 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:56:18 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things
small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on
turntables and tubes.

So what else are they suited to?

GaN? Lots of things.

We're using them in fast switches, the output stages of this:

https://highlandtechnology.com/Product/P500

which makes beautiful clean pulses. We're doing a high voltage pulse
generator too.

GaN is used in tiny wall warts. And for RF stuff. I think some
microwave ovens use them instead of magnetrons.

Their figures of merit, amps/pF and such, are astounding. And they
turn on hard with 5-volt gate drive.






John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics
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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:39:24 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 18:58:44 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:56:18 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> >>wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things
small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on >>>turntables and tubes.

So what else are they suited to?

GaN? Lots of things.

We're using them in fast switches, the output stages of this:

https://highlandtechnology.com/Product/P500

which makes beautiful clean pulses. We're doing a high voltage pulse >generator too.

GaN is used in tiny wall warts. And for RF stuff. I think some
microwave ovens use them instead of magnetrons.

Their figures of merit, amps/pF and such, are astounding. And they
turn on hard with 5-volt gate drive.

Got a ballpark Rdson?

John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics

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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 19:58:48 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:39:24 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 18:58:44 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:56:18 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> >>>wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things >>>>small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on >>>>turntables and tubes.

So what else are they suited to?

GaN? Lots of things.

We're using them in fast switches, the output stages of this:

https://highlandtechnology.com/Product/P500

which makes beautiful clean pulses. We're doing a high voltage pulse >>generator too.

GaN is used in tiny wall warts. And for RF stuff. I think some
microwave ovens use them instead of magnetrons.

Their figures of merit, amps/pF and such, are astounding. And they
turn on hard with 5-volt gate drive.

Got a ballpark Rdson?

There are a zillion parts. Some of the tiny EPC things get down to
280 uohms with 5 volts on the gate.

This is 650v and 190m.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nexperia-usa-inc/GAN190-650FBEZ/19109776?s=N4IgTCBcDaIOIEEByBGAnABgLQDYCsGAYgEICiABCALoC%2BQA


John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics
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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 12:41:31 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 19:58:48 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:39:24 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> >>wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 18:58:44 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:56:18 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> >>>>wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>>>>wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things >>>>>small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on >>>>>turntables and tubes.

So what else are they suited to?

GaN? Lots of things.

We're using them in fast switches, the output stages of this:

https://highlandtechnology.com/Product/P500

which makes beautiful clean pulses. We're doing a high voltage pulse >>>generator too.

GaN is used in tiny wall warts. And for RF stuff. I think some
microwave ovens use them instead of magnetrons.

Their figures of merit, amps/pF and such, are astounding. And they
turn on hard with 5-volt gate drive.

Got a ballpark Rdson?

There are a zillion parts. Some of the tiny EPC things get down to
280 uohms with 5 volts on the gate.

Wow! I thought you were going to say 0.01 Ohms or somethin' like it. I
am *so* far behind the times!

This is 650v and 190m.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nexperia-usa-inc/GAN190-650FBEZ/19109776?s=N4IgTCBcDaIOIEEByBGAnABgLQDYCsGAYgEICiABCALoC%2BQA

John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics

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From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

"Cursitor Doom" <cd@notformail.com> wrote in message news:ga85mk52chdagqnra78klbtd9fkr3t5bcm@4ax.com...

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 05:56:18 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:19:56 +0000, Cursitor Doom <cd@notformail.com> >>wrote:

Are they typically, or invariably even, set up to run in class D?

CD

Certainly switchmode, not linear.

There are a bunch of named classes, but all are basically class D.

GaNs can switch really fast, which for a given power makes things
small. Aside from that, they have no real advantages over mosfets.

A delta-sigma GaN amp might be fun.

But audio makes no sense, which is why people still spend big on
turntables and tubes.

So what else are they suited to?

You can have fun with them in audio amplifiers if you want.
But there are many reasons why I won't be putting this into production
any time soon. It takes very little adjustment of R16 to blow up the FETs.

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TEXT 1056 960 Left 2 ;Gnd4
TEXT -1560 -176 Left 2 ;LM386 simulation with GaN FET output\nJanuary 2026\nSimulation requires
https://assets.nexperia.com/documents/spice-model/GAN190-650EBE_LTspice.zip TEXT -1528 1048 Left 2 !.options plotwinsize=0
TEXT -1520 1008 Left 2 !.tran 0 200m 0 1u


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