Exclusive Interview with Anker CEO Steven Yang: Stronger, Smaller, Cooler, and Cheaper GaN Chargers are Coming

On September 24, 2019, in an event at the Shenzhen headquarters of Anker Innovations, Power Integrations CEO Balu Balakrishnan presented the one-millionth GaN-based IC to Anker CEO Steven Yang.

Floyd Wang, Editor-in-chief at ChargerLAB.com, sat down with Steven Yang and talked about PI's GaN chips and the future of Anker's GaN chargers.

The following is the transcript of the interview.

Floyd: Hello, I am Floyd with chargerlab.com, today I am here with the CEO of Anker, Steven. Hello, Steven.
Steven: Hi, Floyd.

Floyd: I have some questions for you. So how well are the GaN chargers of Anker selling?
Steven: Tremendously well. In Anker we sold more than 30 million of charging pieces last year. After the introduction of GaN at the end of last year, all the sales numbers have been across our expectations.

Floyd: So what are the main regions for the sales of GaN chargers?
Steven: Well, so Anker's traditionally very strong in the western markets, (developed countries) like US, UK, Germany, Japan, and also we have been increasingly popular in the developing markets such as the Middle East, South East Asia, and China. Especially in China actually, since Chinese customers are very fond of the GaN chargers (Floyd: Yes).

Floyd: So from the manufacturer's perspective, what do you think, is the advantage of PI's GaN solutions?
Steven: I think as the new generation of material, GaN is really providing us with some very cool technical advantages over silicon. In particular, PI's GaN, from the industry's leading provider, is stable, and compact, easy-to-build and easy-to-handle.

Floyd: So can you share with us about the upcoming new GaN chargers from Anker?
Steven: Well last year around this time, we introduced the first generation of GaN (products). These were mostly the lower-power-rating products with 30W, 45W-ish GaN products. So this year we will be taking these to a higher power rating as well as to the multiports, both USB-C and USB-A. And also taking them to be of other form factors, not just chargers, but other form factors.

Floyd: Are you also planning to bring the price of GaN chargers down?
Steven: Well, so we are happy to look up to (laugh) our partners. I think eventually great technology at the adoption curve. At the beginning of the adoption curve, it will be a little pricy, for example, PI has to recover the R&D cost, and for us too. But I think going forward, I am very confident that the price of the (GaN) chargers will go down together with the size, and the thermal of the chargers.

Floyd: Thank you for your time, Steven.
Steven: Sure. Thank you.

(End of the interview)