How to source GaN chargers from China — UL 62368-1 certification, GaN IC authenticity, DOE Level VI efficiency, and multi-market CE/UKCA/PSE compliance.
GaN chargers are the most compliance-intensive consumer electronics category on Amazon. A single non-compliant unit can trigger a listing removal. A pattern of returns citing overheating can suspend your entire seller account. This guide covers how to source GaN chargers from China with compliance built in from the first conversation with a factory — not retrofitted after samples arrive.
The core problem: most Chinese GaN charger factories are competent at manufacturing but routinely produce documentation that does not meet the requirements of the US, EU, or Japanese markets. The gap is not malice — it is a mismatch between what their domestic customers require and what your market requires. Bridging that gap is the job of a technically informed buyer.
1. The certification stack for a single charger
A GaN charger sold in five markets — US, EU, UK, Japan, Korea — requires five separate certifications. They share a common technical base (IEC 62368-1) but diverge in lab accreditation requirements, efficiency standards, and administrative procedures. The same multi-market CE/UKCA/PSE matrix applies to adjacent power products like portable power banks with PD output, which carry their own UN 38.3 battery-transport layer on top.
United States — UL 62368-1
UL 60950 was withdrawn in December 2020. Any charger sold in the US today must be certified to UL 62368-1 (the audio/video, information, and communication equipment safety standard). Certification must come from an NRTL-accredited laboratory: UL certification, Intertek, MET Labs, TÜV Rheinland (US operations), or CSA Group. A factory's in-house test report does not satisfy this requirement regardless of what it says on the cover.
European Union — CE marking
CE marking for a charger involves three directives simultaneously:
- Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU (LVD): test to EN 62368-1
- EMC Directive: test to EN 55032 (emissions) and EN 55035 (immunity)
- ErP Directive / EcoDesign: efficiency must meet CoC Tier 2 thresholds (see Section 3)
A factory can self-declare CE for some product categories. For chargers — Class II (double-insulated) power supplies — a Notified Body is not mandatory, but you, the importer, are legally responsible for the Declaration of Conformity (DoC). The DoC must be in your name, not the factory's.
United Kingdom — UKCA
UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) has the same technical requirements as CE. The difference is administrative: separate DoC, UKCA mark instead of CE mark, and UK-based Approved Body if conformity assessment is required. Since January 2025 CE marking is no longer accepted on the UK market for new product placements.
Japan — PSE
Japan's Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Act (PSE) divides products into two classes. Chargers fall under the Class II category (T-mark, diamond-shaped). Testing must be conducted by a designated examination body. If the charger includes any wireless function (Qi, BLE), separate Radio Law approval is required through TELEC.
Korea — KC
KC certification (Korea Certification) is administered by MSIP (Ministry of Science and ICT). The test standard is largely harmonized with IEC 62368-1, but must be conducted at a KC-designated laboratory. Documentation must be in Korean.
Budget and timeline reality
A charger submitted to all five markets simultaneously costs $8,000–15,000 in total lab fees, depending on product complexity and whether RF testing is required. Each certification takes 4–8 weeks of lab time after sample submission. The parallel submission approach (Section 5) is essential if you have a launch deadline.
2. GaN IC authenticity — the hidden risk
This is the most underestimated risk in GaN charger sourcing. It is also the hardest to detect from a visual inspection.
The problem
The three major GaN transistor suppliers for consumer chargers are Navitas Semiconductor, EPC (Efficient Power Conversion), and GaN Systems (now part of Infineon). All three are routinely counterfeited in Chinese supply chains. A fake GaN IC uses a standard silicon MOSFET die re-marked with GaN branding — the same substitution risk that affects the power-conversion internals of AC-DC power modules built on similar switching topologies. The charger passes electrical functionality tests at room temperature. Under sustained load, the fake MOSFET dissipates significantly more heat than a genuine GaN device, and the charger fails thermally — sometimes catastrophically.
How to verify authenticity
First, request the BOM (bill of materials) with the GaN IC part number and the component supplier name. A legitimate factory purchases GaN ICs from authorized distributors: Digi-Key, Mouser, Arrow, or authorized Chinese distributors such as ZFGelectronics or Macroblock. If the factory cannot name their distributor, that is a red flag.
Second, on pre-production samples, run a thermal test at 100% rated load for 60 minutes. Measure the IC case temperature with a thermal camera or thermocouple. A genuine GaN device should show a case temperature 15–25°C lower than an equivalent silicon MOSFET under the same load. If your sample charger's IC runs unexpectedly hot, suspect substitution.
Third, Navitas specifically offers a genuine product verification program. If a factory claims to use Navitas GaNFast ICs, request a certificate of authenticity or ask to review their purchase order from an authorized distributor. Navitas' authorized distributor list is public on their website.
Why this matters for Amazon
A charger that passes initial safety testing but fails thermally in the field generates return claims citing "overheating" or "melted charger." On Amazon, a single ASIN accumulating such reviews is vulnerable to listing suppression and A-to-Z claims. The FBA returns cost alone on 500 defective units can exceed the entire product margin — the same exposure applies to companion charging products such as branded power banks sold under the same seller account.
3. DOE Level VI and CoC Tier 2 efficiency
What these standards require
DOE Level VI is the US Department of Energy's mandatory efficiency standard for external power supplies sold in the US market. CoC Tier 2 is the EU's Code of Conduct for external power supplies — technically voluntary, but required by major retailers and effectively mandatory for the EU market.
Both standards require efficiency measurements at four load points: 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of rated output. Additionally, standby power consumption must be below 0.1W.
The minimum average efficiency at the four load points for a 65W single-voltage output supply is approximately 88–89%, depending on the exact output voltage (the formula is output-voltage dependent). The 25% load point is typically the hardest to meet because switching losses dominate at light loads.
The documentation problem
Many Chinese factories measure charger efficiency at 100% load only — their best case — and present this as an efficiency report. This does not satisfy DOE Level VI or CoC Tier 2, which require all four load points. When requesting compliance documentation, ask explicitly for a test report showing all four load points measured with a calibrated power analyzer (not estimated from BOM simulation). If the factory has only a single-point measurement, assume the certification is not valid.
A secondary issue: DOE Level VI compliance is not required in China's domestic market. Factories that sell primarily to Chinese customers may have never tested for it. Raising this requirement early in sourcing conversations immediately filters out factories that lack the test capability.
4. USB Power Delivery compliance
PD 3.0 versus PD 3.1
USB Power Delivery 3.0 supports up to 100W. PD 3.1 (ratified 2021) extends this to 240W via Extended Power Range (EPR) profiles. Most consumer GaN chargers — 65W, 100W — use PD 3.0. A 140W or 240W charger requires a factory with PD 3.1 implementation experience, which is meaningfully rarer.
USB-IF certification
USB-IF certification is technically optional under the USB-IF licensing program but is increasingly required by Amazon vendor agreements and major retail buyers. The certification process costs approximately $2,000–3,000 and takes 6–8 weeks at a USB-IF authorized test lab.
Common failure modes in USB-IF testing:
- Incorrect voltage transition timing during power contract negotiation
- Missing PR_Swap (power role swap) support
- Incorrect cable current advertisement via CC line signaling
- VBUS overshoot during fast voltage transitions
If a factory claims their charger is USB-IF certified, request the USB-IF Test ID number. This can be verified directly on the USB-IF public compliance database at compliance.usb.org. A claim of "USB-PD compatible" without a Test ID is not certification.
5. Multi-market certification timeline planning
Sequential versus parallel submission
Most first-time buyers sequence certifications: get UL first, then CE, then UKCA. This approach takes 5–7 months from design freeze to all markets cleared.
The parallel approach — submitting to all labs simultaneously after design freeze — takes 8–10 weeks for UL and CE concurrently. The savings are 3–4 months of time-to-market.
The practical requirement for parallel submission: your design must be frozen and stable. Labs charge additional fees for design changes after submission. If you submit to UL and CE simultaneously but then change the power stage topology to fix an efficiency problem, you restart both submissions.
The critical path
Efficiency testing (DOE Level VI, CoC Tier 2) can run in parallel with safety testing — these are different tests with different equipment. Do not sequence them. A common mistake is completing safety certification and then discovering the charger fails the efficiency standard. At that point, any design change to improve efficiency reopens the safety certification.
Practical sequencing:
- Design freeze — no further component or topology changes
- Submit safety samples to all target market labs simultaneously
- Submit efficiency samples to a power analyzer lab simultaneously
- USB-IF submission (if required) simultaneously
- Address any failures from lab feedback before production tooling is cut
Using a certification consultant
For multi-market simultaneous submission, a certification consultant who manages relationships with multiple labs simultaneously adds more value than their fee. Factory compliance teams know their domestic market requirements well; they frequently misunderstand or underestimate requirements for EU, UK, Japan, and Korea. An independent consultant — not employed by the factory — with experience submitting the same product to five markets simultaneously will catch lab-specific requirements before submission rather than after failure.
Budget $500–1,500 for a consultant's coordination fee on top of lab costs.
6. Private label considerations
MOQ and tooling costs
GaN charger OEM with custom packaging starts at 500–1,000 units from most factories in Dongguan and Shenzhen. Custom housing molds — required if you want a unique physical form factor rather than a rebadged standard housing — cost $3,000–8,000 per mold, depending on complexity and number of cavities.
A standard rectangular 65W GaN charger in a factory-standard housing with custom branding (color, logo on housing, custom retail box) is achievable from 500 units. A unique form factor — a spherical charger, a flat-fold design, an integrated cable model — requires custom tooling and a higher MOQ of 2,000+ units to amortize mold cost.
Safety mark requirements
UL and CE marks must be permanently marked on the charger housing — molded into the plastic or laser-engraved. A sticker label does not satisfy the requirement. When reviewing factory samples, verify the marks are molded or engraved, not applied as a self-adhesive label.
For CE marking specifically: the CE mark must appear on both the product and the retail packaging, at a minimum height of 5mm.
Declaration of Conformity ownership
For EU and UK markets, the Declaration of Conformity must be issued in the name of the entity placing the product on the market — that is, your company, not the factory. A factory that offers to provide their own CE DoC with your label applied is offering something that does not satisfy the legal requirement. You need your own DoC, signed by your company's authorized representative, referencing the test reports.
This also means your company name must appear in the charger's packaging as the responsible party. This is a common oversight among first-time OEM buyers.
Getting the compliance process right from day one
The most expensive compliance failures happen when sourcing decisions are made on price and certification is treated as a step to complete after production. A non-compliant charger that has already been manufactured and shipped to FBA cannot be retroactively certified without physical modifications. Destruction costs, return shipping, and replacement manufacturing typically cost 3–4× the original order value.
The correct sequence: define your target markets at the start, require that your factory has specific experience with your target market certifications, request third-party lab test reports (not factory self-test reports), and run compliance testing in parallel with production tooling, not after it.
If you are sourcing GaN chargers for multiple markets, our China Sourcing & Supplier Matching service includes factory screening for certification capability as a first-round filter — the same approach we use for all power electronics sourcing. For a comparable case showing how multi-market certification and private label manufacturing play out in practice, see how an EU startup took a Bluetooth speaker from crowdfunding to 5,000-unit production while navigating FCC and CE simultaneously. Our Quality Inspection service covers pre-shipment verification that safety marks are correctly applied and documentation is in order. For buyers considering custom designs, our Private Label & OEM Management service manages the tooling, certification, and regulatory documentation process end to end. Before committing to any factory, our Factory Audit & Verification confirms they have the SMT equipment, QC processes, and certification experience your product requires.
For the broader supplier qualification framework, the Factory Audit Checklist covers the 47-point verification process relevant to any electronics manufacturer, including power electronics.
