Navitas Semiconductor has announced a partnership with Compuware to define new benchmarks for data centre power supplies. With 44 per cent of data centre costs being related to power (electricity, power conversion and cooling), an upgrade to GaN-based data centres could save up to $1.9 billion a year, which represents a six times return on investment in a year.
Gallium nitride (GaN) is a next-generation semiconductor technology that runs up to 20x faster than legacy silicon chips. Navitas’ proprietary GaNFast power ICs integrate GaN power (FET) and GaN drive plus control and protection in a single SMT package. These GaNFast power ICs become easy-to-use, high-speed, high-performance digital-in, power-out building blocks and deliver up to three times faster charging or three times more power in half the size and weight, and with up to 40 per cent energy savings compared with legacy silicon chips.
“GaN is a breakthrough new technology that is enabling dramatic reductions in size, energy savings and power density for data centre power supplies,” Robin Cheng, VP of Compuware’s R and D team, said. “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.”
Typical data centres using silicon to process power achieve only 75 per cent end-to-end efficiency from AC-to-processor. A GaN-based data centre is expected to reach 84 per cent, representing a dramatic 36 per cent increase in energy savings.
“Navitas and Compuware are aligned on extreme efficiency gains and critical environmental impact,” Gene Sheridan, CEO and co-founder of Navitas, said. “Together, I am confident we will set the efficiency, energy consumption and CO2 benchmarks for the industry with the future of GaN-based data centres”
Manufacturing a GaN power IC has up to a ten times lower CO2 footprint than for a silicon chip, and when you also consider the use-case efficiency, material size and weight benefits, then together GaN can save 4 kg of CO2 for every GaN IC shipped.
