News: Microelectronics
29 September 2021
Navitas and Compuware partner to upgrade data-center power supplies
Gallium nitride (GaN) power integrated circuit firm Navitas Semiconductor of El Segundo, CA, USA and Dublin, Ireland and Compuware Technology Inc (which provides high-end, green-energy power supplies) have announced a partnership to define new benchmarks for data-center power supplies. With 44% of data-center costs being related to power (electricity, power conversion and cooling), an upgrade to GaN-based data centers could save over 15TWhr or up to $1.9bn/year, which represents a 6x return on investment in a year, it is reckoned.
Founded in 2014, Navitas introduced what it claimed to be the first commercial GaN power ICs. Since GaN is reckoned to run up to 20x faster than silicon chips, the firm’s proprietary GaNFast power ICs are said to deliver up to 3x faster charging or 3x more power in half the size and weight, and with up to 40% energy savings, for applications in the mobile, consumer, enterprise (data center, 5G), renewables (solar, energy storage) and electric vehicle (EV)/eMobility markets.
“GaN is a breakthrough new technology that is enabling dramatic reductions in size, energy savings and power density for data-center power supplies,” says Robin Cheng, VP of Compuware’s R&D team. “Navitas is an excellent partner with industry-leading GaN IC technology that integrates GaN power, GaN drive, plus control and protection to widen our horizon of GaN and cooperate to create new, breakthrough standards for high-performance computing, as the world’s demand for data increases,” he adds.
Typical data centers using silicon to process power achieve only 75% end-to-end efficiency from ‘AC-to-processor’. A GaN-based data center is expected to reach 84% (representing a 36% increase in energy savings).
Since 2014, Compuware has introduced more ‘Titanium-certified’ power supplies than any other company, it is claimed. More than a third of the highest-efficiency-grade models certified are from Compuware, and the firm ships over 2 million server power supplies each year, with Supermicro as a lead customer. With an estimated $25 of GaN content per power supply, this represents a $50m per year opportunity.
The new benchmarks are not only enabled by GaN technology but also demanded by legislation such as the European Union’s ‘Directive 2009/125/EC, 2019 Annex’, which states that new data-center power supplies must meet the extreme 80 Plus ‘Titanium’ level of efficiency from 1 January 2023.
“Navitas and Compuware are aligned on extreme efficiency gains and critical environmental impact,” says Navitas’ CEO & co-founder Gene Sheridan. “Together, I am confident we will set the efficiency, energy consumption and CO2 benchmarks for the industry with the future of GaN-based data centers.”
Manufacturing a GaN power IC has up to a 10x lower CO2 footprint than for a silicon chip and - also considering the use-case efficiency, material size and weight benefits - then GaN can collectively save 4kg of CO2 for every GaN IC shipped. Overall, GaN is expected to address a 2.6Gton/year reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. With over 13 million servers shipped per year, each with over $75 of GaN content, data centers represent an opportunity of about $1bn+ per year for GaN.
