Wise-integration & Powernet to Build Digitally Controlled, Compact, Energy-Efficient GaN Power Suppl

The two companies will combine their technologies and products to deliver small and energy-efficient components for power-supply applications that are currently limited to analog control.

Wise-integration and Powernet agreed to build compact and energy-efficient technology, such as the gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor, for power-supply applications currently limited to analog control. The two companies will combine their technologies and products to deliver small, energy-efficient components for GaN power supply applications with digital control. The agreement addresses the needs of OEMs that require compact, digitally controlled power-supply systems for faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient electronic equipment in products ranging from USB PD fast chargers to monitors, TV sets, and electric vehicles.

The breakthrough system combines Powernet’s high-efficiency switched mode power supply (SMPS) technology with Wise-integration’s WiseWare® digital controller and Wisegan®, a 650 V enhancement-mode GaN-on-silicon IC for power applications from 30 W to 3 kW.

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a wide bandgap, next-generation semiconductor technology that has become key for developing advanced power electronics. Compared to silicon, it can operate up to 20 times faster and deliver up to three times as much power or charge while being half the size and weight.

Wise-integration is the first company to introduce digital control to the market for power supplies, where only analog controls were previously available. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM), who need ever-smaller and ultra-efficient power supplies for their future product lines, are raising their demands, while original design manufacturers (ODM) like Powernet are attempting to match these requirements. GaN is seen as a major material for supplying these capabilities, but power supply manufacturers find it exceedingly challenging to use analog devices at switching frequencies greater than 300 kHz.