News: Microelectronics
10 April 2025
Navitas & GigaDevice partner to combine power & control for high-frequency, high-efficiency & high-density power platforms
Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA has announced a new strategic partnership with GigaDevice Semiconductor Inc of Beijing, China – a fabless supplier of flash memory, microcontrollers (MCUs), sensor, and analog products – to create a joint-lab for integrating and tailoring Navitas’ GaNFast ICs and GigaDevice's microcontrollers, targeting AI data centers, electric vehicles (EVs), solar, and energy saving systems (ESS).
Vincent Li, senior VP, chief technology officer & general manager of GigaDevice’s MCU business unit, and Charles Zha, VP & general manager of Navitas’ Asia-Pacific, plus other senior executives attended the signing ceremony in Shanghai. Both parties shared their collaboration strategy and discussed operational models for the joint lab.
“Digital power stands as one of GigaDevice’s core strategic markets. MCUs play a pivotal role in advancing the intelligence of digital power systems, enhancing energy efficiency, and ensuring operational security,” says Li. “By working with Navitas, we will deeply integrate GigaDevice's advanced MCU with Navitas' leading GaNFast technology to develop competitive solutions for industrial automation and new energy vehicles,” he adds.
“The joint lab with GigaDevice will amplify our complementary strengths in IC design, manufacturing, and ecosystem development and accelerate R&D for next-gen, high-efficiency power solutions, reinforcing our ‘Smart + Green’ strategic vision,” says Zha.
As GaN and SiC power technologies transition power conversion to faster, lighter and more compact solutions such as single-stage BDS converters, MCUs need to be optimized to maximize these extremely fast switching characteristics, such as high processing speeds and fast I/O capabilities. A co-developed solution of Navitas’ power and GigaDevice’s control will further accelerate the adoption of GaN and SiC into higher-power markets, it is expected.
The joint R&D lab will integrate both company’s technical product and system-level application expertise to drive advances in intelligent and efficient power management solutions. Integrating Navitas’ GaNFast technology with GigaDevice’s MCU products will enable a new level of integration, performance and high-power-density digital power solutions, it is reckoned.
As a supplier in China of high-performance general-purpose MCUs, GigaDevice has been widely adopted across diverse sectors including power systems, industrial automation, automotive electronics, and motion control, with cumulative shipments exceeding 2 billion units. GigaDevice’s GD32 high-performance MCU series has been designed to use leading technology and core architecture, with higher processing power, greater storage capacity, and richer on-chip resources, to bring high-end innovative experiences to developers for industrial automation, photovoltaic energy storage, graphic displays, digital power supplies, motor control, and other diversified applications. Their expansive portfolio is complemented by comprehensive industry-specific vertical solutions, delivering products, tailored technical support, and system-level design services to customers.
Navitas’ GaNFast power ICs enable high-frequency, high-efficiency power conversion, achieving 3x more power and 3x faster charging in half the size and weight compared with prior designs with legacy silicon power devices, it is reckoned.
Markets include mobile, where Navitas continues to supply GaN ICs to all of the top 10 smartphone/notebook OEMs, with the recent announcement of powering Dell’s family of AI Notebooks. They are the established leader in AI data-center solutions enabled by high-power GaNSafe and GeneSiC technology, withwhat are claimed to be world’s firsts in high-efficiency, high-power-density designs, such as the 3.2kW CRPS (achieving 40% smaller size), the highest-power-density 4.5kW CRPS, and the first 8.5kW AI data-center power supply powered by GaN and SiC that can meet 98% efficiency, complying with the Open Compute Project (OCP) and Open Rack v3 (ORv3) specifications. For electric vehicles, Power Electronics News announced that Changan Automobile would launch the first commercial GaN-based on-board charger (OBC) using Navitas GaN ICs.
The partnership follows Navitas’ strategy of creating an eco-system to support these next-gen, clean-energy solutions. Creating new high-speed isolated drivers, such as IsoFast, integrating ASICs with GaNSense ICs for lower-power applications, alongside partnering with high-frequency planar magnetics for high-frequency transformers, inductors and EMI filters, enables simple integrated ‘one-stop shop’ solutions to allow designers to innovate and accelerate GaN/SiC-based power electronics.
Navitas’ GaN and SiC devices adopted in Dell’s family of 60–360W AI notebook adapters
Navitas presents first 8.5kW AI data-center power supply powered by GaN and SiC
