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Power Integrations has unveiled new details on the capabilities of its PowiGaN gallium-nitride technology designed to power the next generation of AI data centers. The company outlined the performance and system-level advantages of its 1250 V and 1700 V PowiGaN devices in a white paper released at the 2025 OCP Global Summit in San Jose, where NVIDIA provided an update on the emerging 800 VDC data center architecture.
The paper demonstrates how Power Integrations’ high-voltage PowiGaN HEMTs enable compact, high-efficiency 800 VDC power conversion systems with efficiency exceeding 98 percent. The company’s 1250 V PowiGaN switch delivers superior performance compared to stacked 650 V GaN FETs and conventional 1200 V silicon carbide (SiC) devices, offering greater power density, lower switching losses, and proven field reliability.
Power Integrations also highlighted its InnoMux-2 EP integrated circuits as an advanced solution for auxiliary power systems in 800 VDC data center designs. Featuring an integrated 1700 V PowiGaN switch, the device supports input voltages up to 1000 VDC and achieves over 90 percent efficiency in compact, fanless liquid-cooled architectures.
According to Roland Saint-Pierre, vice president of product development at Power Integrations, the industry’s move toward 800 VDC architectures addresses rising power demands in AI data centers by simplifying rack designs, improving space utilization, and reducing copper use. He emphasized that the company’s 1250 V and 1700 V PowiGaN devices are ideally suited to meet the efficiency, reliability, and power-density requirements of these high-performance systems.
Power Integrations is currently the only company supplying 1250 V and 1700 V GaN switches in high-volume production. Since introducing its first GaN ICs in 2018, the company has shipped more than 175 million GaN devices across a wide range of applications, including data centers, electric vehicles, and fast chargers.
The introduction of PowiGaN technology for 800 VDC data centers marks a significant step toward more efficient, scalable, and sustainable power conversion systems to support the rapidly growing energy demands of AI computing infrastructure.
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations is rolling out a new reference design kit tailored specifically for solar-powered race cars as 37 student teams prepare to race across the Outback in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge starting August 24.
RDK-85SLR includes everything needed to create a 46-watt power supply. Solar race car teams can get the kit free by registering online.
The kit, RDK-85SLR, features the PI™ InnoSwitch™3-AQ IC , which incorporates PI’s PowiGaN™ gallium-nitride switch technology. The kit is inspired by a design created by PI’s PowerPros℠ online support engineers in collaboration with the ETH Zurich aCentauri team, whose #85 ‘Silvretta’ challenger-class car is using the design to maximize efficiency in its auxiliary power supply.
“Thousands of engineering students participate in solar car challenges around the world each year, and these innovators will help bring about a more sustainable future,” said Andy Smith, director of technical outreach and training for Power Integrations. “We are providing this reference kit to help young engineers take advantage of the latest, most energy-efficient technologies, such as PowiGaN, in their designs.”
The design kit includes everything needed to create a 46-watt power supply that delivers up to 80 watts for short periods—making it ideal for use as an auxiliary power supply in a solar race car. It employs the company’s InnoSwitch3-AQ flyback power supply IC with a highly efficient PowiGaN switch and eliminates the need for a heatsink, enabling more compact, lightweight, and cost-effective designs. Contents of the kit include a sample power supply, four InnoSwitch3-AQ ICs, and an unpopulated PCB. It is backed by a report containing power supply and magnetics transformer build instructions, schematics, a PCB layout guide, a parts list and comprehensive performance data. Live tech support is available from Power Integrations’ PowerPros team.
“We proved PowiGaN’s reliability, performance and efficiency in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in 2023,” stated Aaron Griesser, lead electrical engineer from the 2023 aCentauri team. “We achieved 95 percent efficiency across both light and full loads with a broad output range of 5 to 60 W. Additionally, the scrutineering judges were astounded to see an auxiliary power supply without a heatsink.”
Power Integrations is a proud sponsor of the aCentauri team and will be reporting on the race from Mr. Green’s Blog and PI’s social media channels using hashtag #PowiGaNVan.
Reference design kit RDK-85SLR is priced at $50. Solar race car teams can get the kit free by registering online.
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations announced that Jennifer A. Lloyd, PhD will be the company’s next chief executive officer, succeeding Balu Balakrishnan, who has served as CEO since 2002. A former member of Power Integrations’ board of directors, Dr. Lloyd has been reappointed to the company’s board. Both appointments are effective July 21.
Since 1997, Dr. Lloyd has served in a succession of increasingly senior engineering and business roles at Analog Devices, Inc., a global semiconductor leader. She has led multiple $1B+ businesses spanning various technologies and end markets. Most recently, she was corporate vice president leading the company’s multi-market power business unit, responsible for product, strategy and P&L with leadership of a large global team. Prior roles included leadership of Analog’s precision franchise and its healthcare and consumer unit.
Dr. Lloyd holds doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Author of numerous technical papers and recipient of eight U.S. patents, she has also been active in the IEEE community, having served on the technical program committee for the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC) and the VLSI Symposia (VLSI).
Mr. Balakrishnan plans to serve as executive chairman of Power Integrations’ board of directors for approximately six months to ensure a smooth leadership transition; he is expected to remain a non-executive member of the board thereafter. Bala Iyer will remain in the role of lead independent director.
Commented Mr. Balakrishnan: “We are thrilled that Jen Lloyd will be our next CEO. Throughout her distinguished career at Analog Devices, she has proven her ability to drive innovation, deliver new products to the market and achieve profitable growth. Her deep knowledge of power products and technologies and her familiarity with our company will allow her to hit the ground running. I am confident that she is the right leader to take Power Integrations to the next level.”
Dr. Lloyd added: “I am delighted to join Power Integrations as CEO. Power Integrations has a unique franchise in high-voltage semiconductors, with strong intellectual property spanning process, design and packaging, as well as strong system-level expertise and a brand that is respected across the power-electronics industry. The company has tremendous growth opportunities in markets like automotive, datacenter, renewable energy, grid modernization and many more. I am excited to lead the team into what I know will be a bright future.”
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations announced five new reference designs targeting 800 V automotive applications based on the company’s 1700 V InnoSwitch™3-AQ flyback switcher ICs. Spanning power levels from 16 W to 120 W, the designs leverage both wound and low-profile planar transformers and target automotive applications such as DC-DC bus conversion, inverter emergency power, battery management and power supplies for auxiliary systems. The designs feature Power Integrations’ new wide-creepage InSOP™-28G package, which supports 1000 VDC on the primary side while providing appropriate creepage and clearance between pins in pollution degree 2 environments.
“The new InSOP™-28G package, with its wide 5.1 mm drain-to-source pin creepage distance, addresses the critical need for enhanced safety and reliability in high-voltage applications,” said Mike Stroka, product marketing engineer at Power Integrations. “It provides sufficient isolation that conformal coating can be eliminated, saving a manufacturing process step and associated qualification effort. The InnoSwitch3-AQ IC, featuring a 1700 V silicon-carbide (SiC) switch, is an ideal solution for 800 V vehicles, simplifying manufacturing while enhancing overall system performance and reliability.”
Available from www.power.com, the following reference designs are all isolated flyback converters based on the 1700 V-rated CV/CC InnoSwitch3-AQ switcher ICs. The three reference designs kits (RDKs) and two design example reports (DERs) are:
- RDK-994Q— 35 W ultra-low-profile traction inverter gate-drive or emergency power supply with 40-1000 VDC input and 24 V output;
- RDK-1039Q— 18 W power supply with planar transformer for traction inverter gate driver or emergency power supply;
- RDK-1054Q— 120 W power supply with planar transformer, designed to shrink or eliminate heavy, bulky 12 V batteries;
- DER-1030Q— 20 W four-output power supply—one emergency power supply (EPS) with 24.75 V output and three gate-drive power supplies with 25.5 V output;
- DER-1045Q— 16 W four-output power supply—one 14 V EPS output and three gate-drive outputs with split +18 V / -5 V rails.
Power Integrations’ 1700 V-rated SiC-based CV/CC InnoSwitch3-AQ switching power supply ICs deliver up to 120 watts of output power. The highly integrated ICs reduce power supply bill of materials (BOM) count by as much as 50 percent, saving space, enhancing system reliability and easing component sourcing challenges. Devices start up with as little as 30 volts on the drain pin without external circuitry, which is often a critical requirement for functional safety.
Additional protection features include input under-voltage, output over-voltage and over-current limiting. Power consumption is less than 15 mW at no-load. The ICs also incorporate synchronous rectification and a valley switching, discontinuous/continuous conduction mode (DCM/CCM) flyback controller capable of delivering greater than 91 percent efficiency.
Pricing for the new 1700 V-rated InnoSwitch3-AQ switching power supply ICs starts at $6 per unit for 10,000-unit quantities. The reference design kits range from $50 to $100 per kit. Design engineers can enter a drawing to win one of the reference design kits at pages.power.com/rev-up. For further information, contact a Power Integrations sales representative or one of the company’s authorized worldwide distributors – DigiKey, Newark, Mouser and RS Components, or visit power.com.
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations announced financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2024. Net revenues for the fourth quarter were $105.2 million, down nine percent from the prior quarter and up 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $9.1 million or $0.16 per diluted share compared to $0.25 per diluted share in the prior quarter and $0.25 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2023. Cash flow from operations for the fourth quarter was $14.7 million.
In addition to its GAAP results, the company provided non-GAAP measures that exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets and the related tax effects. Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2024 was $17.2 million or $0.30 per diluted share compared to $0.40 per diluted share in the prior quarter and $0.22 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2023. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results is included with the tables accompanying this press release.
For the full year, net revenues were $419.0 million, compared to $444.5 million in the prior year. Full-year GAAP net income was $32.2 million or $0.56 per diluted share, compared to $0.97 per diluted share in the prior year. Non-GAAP net income was $1.16 per diluted share, compared to $1.29 per diluted share in the prior year. Cash flow from operations for the full year was $81.2 million.
Commented Balu Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO of Power Integrations: “Fourth-quarter revenues were up 18 percent year-over-year, and we expect another double-digit increase in the first quarter. While the demand outlook is cloudy, especially in light of uncertainty around trade policy, we expect growth in a variety of end-markets in 2025, including renewable energy, high-voltage DC transmission, metering, automotive, appliances and more. Products featuring our proprietary PowiGaN™ technology should contribute significant growth this year as adoption accelerates across a broad set of high-voltage power-conversion applications.”
Additional Highlights
- Power Integrations paid a dividend of $0.21 per share on December 31, 2024. A dividend of $0.21 per share will be paid on March 31, 2025, to stockholders of record as of February 28, 2025.
- The company utilized $1.9 million for share repurchases during the fourth quarter, leaving $48.1 million remaining on its repurchase authorization as of December 31.
Financial Outlook
The company issued the following forecast for the first quarter of 2025:
- Revenues are expected to be flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, plus or minus five percent.
- GAAP gross margin is expected to be between 55 percent and 55.5 percent, and non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be between 55.5 percent and 56 percent. The difference between GAAP and non-GAAP is primarily attributable to stock-based compensation, with a smaller impact from amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets.
- GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $54 million; non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $45 million. Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to exclude approximately $9 million of stock-based compensation.
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations announced that Gregg Lowe will join the company’s board of directors on February 15, 2025.
From 2017 until 2024 Mr. Lowe was CEO of Wolfspeed, Inc., where he led the company’s transition to a pure-play manufacturer of silicon-carbide solutions for high-power applications. Previously, he was CEO of Freescale Semiconductor from 2012 until its 2015 merger with NXP Semiconductors. Earlier, he had a 27-year career at Texas Instruments, serving in a succession of leadership roles across field sales, automotive sales, marketing, and integrated circuits, culminating in the role of senior vice president and manager of the company’s analog business, where he helped direct the acquisition of National Semiconductor.
Mr. Lowe currently serves on the boards of Silicon Labs and North Carolina A&T University, and is chairman of the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and has completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University.
Commented Balu Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO of Power Integrations: “We are delighted to welcome Gregg Lowe to our board. Gregg is an ideal fit thanks to his decades of experience in analog and power semiconductors, particularly his expansive knowledge of the sales and distribution landscape and deep customer relationships in key end markets including automotive and industrial.”
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations announced that Balu Balakrishnan, the company’s CEO since 2002, will retire from that role once a successor is in place. The company’s board of directors has retained an executive search firm to assist in identifying its next CEO; both internal and external candidates will be considered. Mr. Balakrishnan, 70, intends to serve as executive chairman of the company’s board for as long as is needed to ensure a smooth transition to his successor, and is expected to remain on the board of directors thereafter.
Mr. Balakrishnan joined Power Integrations in 1989, shortly after its formation, from National Semiconductor, where he was a product-line manager. He is the inventor of many Power Integrations products including TOPSwitch™, the company’s first commercial product, followed by TinySwitch™, the first product to feature the company’s renowned EcoSmart™ technology for reducing standby-power waste. Mr. Balakrishnan served in a succession of executive roles before being named president and chief operating officer in 2001.
In 2002 he was named CEO and joined the company’s board of directors. He has been awarded more than 200 U.S. patents and has received numerous awards including the Discover Award for Technological Innovation in recognition of the environmental benefits of EcoSmart technology.
Commented Mr. Balakrishnan: “I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved at Power Integrations over the past 35 years. And while it is time for me to turn over leadership of the company to a new CEO, I remain as passionate as ever about the work we are doing, and I believe exciting times are ahead. We have a talented, dedicated workforce and a promising array of products and technologies with which to pursue growth opportunities in a broad range of end markets. I look forward to working with our new CEO to ensure a smooth transition.”
Bala Iyer, lead independent director of Power Integrations’ board, added: “The board and I congratulate Balu for all that he has achieved at Power Integrations, and we are delighted that he will continue to play an important role in the company’s future. Balu is not only one of the great inventors in the history of the power semiconductor industry, but also an outstanding leader who has built a durable franchise with strong intellectual property, a deep reservoir of engineering talent and a culture that nurtures innovation. I am confident that we will identify an outstanding individual to lead the company in its next phase of growth, building on the strong foundation that Balu has put in place.”
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations announced MotorXpert™ v3.0, a software suite for configuration, control and sensing of BLDC inverters that utilize the company’s BridgeSwitch™ motor-driver ICs. The latest release of the software incorporates Power Integrations’ shuntless and sensorless technology for field-oriented control (FOC), adding support for advanced modulation schemes and unconditional startup under any load condition, along with significant improvements to the host user interface and debugging tools.
Cristian Ionescu-Catrina, product marketing manager at Power Integrations said: “MotorXpert simplifies single- and three-phase sensorless motor-drive designs. In this version 3.0 release, we have added a two-phase modulation scheme, which is ideal for applications that work in high temperature environments such as hot-water circulation pumps. The new modulation reduces inverter switching losses by 33 percent. Version 3.0 also features a five-fold improvement to our waveform visualization tool and an enhanced zoom function, giving developers substantially more information for motor tuning and debugging.”
MotorXpert 3.0 comprises three main sections:
- Sophisticated mathematical algorithms resident on the local MCU or DSP construct accurate feedback signals from the BridgeSwitch IC and provide real-time control of the switching patterns.
- A host-side application interprets inverter actions and displays critical data in actionable format for engineering analysis.
- The easy-to-use control interface permits development engineers to experiment and quickly converge to a final product.
MotorXpert suite is MCU-agnostic and includes a comprehensive porting guide to simplify deployment with a wide range of MCUs. It is implemented in common C language to MISRA standards.
The MotorXpert v3.0 host-side application includes a graphical user interface with Power Integrations’ digital oscilloscope visualization tool that makes it easy to design and configure parameters and operation and simplifies debugging. Parameter tool tips and a tuning assistant improve the development process, and the intuitive parameter list provides easy motor tuning.
The new version also features both V/F and I/F control, which permits motor startup in any load condition. A selectable two-phase modulation scheme allows developers to trade off temperature of the inverter vs torque ripple which is beneficial in applications such as hot water circulation pumps, reducing heatsinking requirements and enclosure cost. Development time is greatly reduced by the included single- and three-phase code libraries with sensorless support, reference designs, and other tools such as a power supply design and analysis tool.
The BridgeSwitch IC is a half-bridge motor driver of low RDSON FREDFET switches, controllers and drivers in a thermally efficient package. Sensorless feedback, fault reporting, and self and load protection are also available for applications from 30 W to 1 HP (750 W).
Applications include indoor and outdoor air conditioning fans, refrigerator compressors, fluid pumps, washing machine and dryer drums, range hoods, industrial fans and heat pumps.
MotorXpert v3.0 is available at no cost with an end-user license agreement. The software suite comes with a quick start guide, software manual, MCU porting guide, single- and three-phase software libraries and a video tutorial. For further information, contact a Power Integrations sales representative or one of the company’s authorized worldwide distributors— DigiKey, Newark, Mouser and RS Components, or visit power.com.
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations introduced a new member of its InnoMux™-2 family of single-stage, independently regulated multi-output offline power supply ICs. The new device features the industry’s first 1700 V gallium nitride switch, fabricated using the company’s proprietary PowiGaN™ technology.
The 1700 V rating further advances the state-of-the-art for GaN power devices, previously set by Power Integrations’ own 900 V and 1250 V devices, both launched in 2023. The 1700 V InnoMux-2 IC easily supports 1000 VDC nominal input voltage in a flyback configuration and achieves over 90 percent efficiency in applications requiring one, two or three supply voltages.
Each output is regulated within one percent accuracy, eliminating post regulators and further improving system efficiency by approximately ten percent. The new device replaces expensive silicon carbide (SiC) transistors in power supply applications such as automotive chargers, solar inverters, three-phase meters and a wide variety of industrial power systems.
Radu Barsan, vice president of technology at Power Integrations, said, “Our rapid pace of GaN development has delivered three world-first voltage ratings in a span of less than two years: 900 V, 1250 V and now 1700 V. Our new InnoMux-2 ICs combine 1700 V GaN and three other recent innovations: independent, accurate, multi-output regulation; FluxLink™, our secondary-side regulation (SSR) digital isolation communications technology; and zero voltage switching (ZVS) without an active-clamp, which all but eliminates switching losses.”
Original – Power Integrations
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Power Integrations enhanced its hardware-software bundle for brushless DC motors (BLDC) with BridgeSwitch™-2, a new high-voltage integrated half-bridge (IHB) motor-driver IC family targeting applications up to 1 HP (746 W). The new ICs, which feature high- and low-side drivers and advanced FREDFETs with integrated lossless current sensing, deliver inverter efficiency of up to 99 percent.
The IHB architecture eliminates hot spots, which increases design flexibility and reliability, slashes component count and saves PCB area. BridgeSwitch-2 is supported by Power Integrations’ MotorXpert™ software suite which includes single-phase trapezoidal control and three-phase sensor-less Field Oriented Control (FOC) modules, speeding inverter development.
BridgeSwitch-2 ICs handle operational exceptions in hardware, which permits the use of IEC 60730 Class A safety software, reducing certification time by months. Quiescent BLDC inverters can be ordered into sleep-mode, reducing driver power consumption to less than 10 mW; this leaves more power available under regulated standby power limits to be allocated for loads such as network access and monitoring.
Cristian Ionescu-Catrina, product marketing manager at Power Integrations, said: “The low standby consumption of BridgeSwitch-2-based motor drives enables designers to meet new and emerging EU ERP regulations. BridgeSwitch-2 ICs are also far more efficient than IGBT based IPMs across the entire load range.”
He continued: “From startup to performance optimization, the GUI-based tool, terminal emulator and MISRA C-compliant code library of MotorXpert greatly simplifies the design process, allowing the motor architecture to be optimized in real-time without repeated firmware updates. BridgeSwitch-2 is microprocessor agnostic, easing its adoption into existing systems – this is important as engineers update designs to meet more stringent standby regulations.”
BridgeSwitch-2 ICs address a power range of 30 to 746 W (1 HP), encompassing a broad range of applications including heat exchanger fans, refrigerator compressors, fluid and circulation pumps, gas boiler combustion fans, washing machine drums and kitchen blenders and mixers.
The IHB architecture reduces component count by 50 percent and PCB space by 30 percent over discrete designs by eliminating shunt resistors and associated signal conditioning circuits. Shunt losses are also eliminated, improving efficiency. Precise motor control is achieved with the built-in real-time reporting of phase current (IPH) information.
Accurate turn-on/off gate drive and a soft-body diode result in a typical EMI profile 10 dB lower than existing drivers, so a smaller EMI filter can be selected. BridgeSwitch-2 ICs feature built-in DC overvoltage protection and current limits that protect the inverter and the system without relying on system software.
The choice of error-flag or comprehensive fault bus reporting supports a range of system requirements. Emerging use-cases like failure prediction are now possible with the high accuracy of the built-in IPH information and comprehensive reporting via the fault bus. BridgeSwitch-2 motor drives use built-in, hardware-based low- and high-side over-current protection to meet IEC 60335-1 Class A requirements. BridgeSwitch-2 also works without an auxiliary power supply, further reducing PCB area and component count.
Original – Power Integrations
