Renesas’ Power IC Strategy Shift Puts the Spotlight on GaN
Renesas is doubling down on gallium nitride (GaN) in what represents a firm endorsement of the technology over silicon carbide. The move, and actions by the company’s competitors in the field, confirm GaN’s growing profile and adoption for power applications by OEMs.
What’s at stake: Renesas has thrown its weight fully behind gallium nitride and will be adding investments to the product line, while hitting pause on silicon carbide. Does this represent a trend rather than the decision of a single company to focus on a segment where it believes it has an edge? Renesas’ move favors the company, because it allows it to concentrate resources and product development efforts on GaN. The latest move raises the question of when and whether Renesas will reconsider SiC anytime soon.
Renesas Electronics has sent a strong signal to the power semiconductor industry, announcing a major expansion of its gallium nitride (GaN) business only weeks after pausing its silicon carbide (SiC) operations.
The move underscores a rapidly shifting landscape in power electronics, where the rivalry between GaN and SiC is intensifying as both technologies vie for dominance in high-growth sectors like AI data centers, electric vehicles, and renewable energy.
During a press presentation on Tuesday, Primit Parikh, vice president of the GaN business division at Renesas, laid out the company’s vision and strategy, noting: “Renesas is doubling down, perhaps even tripling down, on GaN,” he said, referencing the company’s recent acquisition of Transphorm, a leading GaN innovator, and the integration of Dialog’s controller and driver products.
“We now have the unique opportunity to not only expand high-voltage GaN products, but to build out a full ecosystem, including controllers, drivers, and ICs that go hand in hand with GaN, all supported by solutions and reference designs,” Parikh said, during his presentation.
The timing is noteworthy. Just weeks ago, Renesas announced a pause in its SiC business, a move that surprised some industry watchers, given SiC’s established role in automotive and high-voltage industrial applications. The company had poured $2 billion into Wolfspeed, a troubled but leading supplier of silicon carbide. The investment is now in question following Wolfspeed’s decision to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But as Parikh explained, the temporary pause on silicon carbide reflects where Renesas sees the greatest potential for growth and differentiation.
“Given the market dynamics, we made a strategic decision to temporarily suspend SiC and IGBTs, and are now focusing on GaN and MOSFETs,” he said. “This pivot allows us to capitalize on key areas like data center and power infrastructure growth, and to develop a strong roadmap of ICs and solutions that go hand in hand with our GaN switches.”
Renesas’ latest product launch, the Gen IV Plus series of high-voltage 650V GaN FETs, is designed for multi-kilowatt-class applications in AI data centers, server power supply systems, e-mobility charging, UPS battery backup, battery energy storage, and solar inverters. These devices leverage the SuperGaN platform, a field-proven depletion-mode (d-mode) architecture inherited from Transphorm and offer a 14 percent reduction in on-resistance and die size compared to previous generations, along with a 20 percent improvement in key efficiency metrics.
“The rollout of Gen IV Plus GaN devices marks the first major new product milestone since Renesas’ acquisition of Transphorm last year,” Parikh said. “Future versions will combine the field-proven SuperGaN technology with our drivers and controllers to deliver complete power solutions. Whether used as standalone FETs or integrated into complete system solution designs with Renesas controllers or drivers, these devices will provide a clear path to designing products with higher power density, reduced footprint and better efficiency at a lower total system cost.”
GaN growth
This expansion comes at a time when the global GaN market is experiencing explosive growth. According to researcher Yole Group, the power GaN segment is forecast to grow from $260 million in 2023, to $2.5 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 percent. “Despite a decline in the overall semiconductor industry of around 8.2 percent in 2023, power GaN revenues grew by 41 percent. That growth is set to continue,” said Ezgi Dogmus, activity Leader for compound semiconductors at Yole Group in a 2024 report.
The automotive and mobility sector alone could account for more than $750 million in GaN revenue by 2029, driven by the electric vehicle boom and the increasing demand for onboard chargers and DC-DC converters. Claire Troadec, business line director at Yole Group, added, in the report: “Production of GaN onboard chargers and DC-DC converters will ramp up in 2-3 years, followed by main inverters after 2028. The automotive industry will also be competing with the data center sector for GaN devices, as escalating demand for data and computing, particularly for AI, fuels rapid growth in data centers and pushes toward higher efficiency.”
Industry analysts note that while SiC remains the material of choice for the highest-voltage automotive and grid applications, GaN’s sweet spot is shifting upward. “GaN is now proven in multi-kilowatt data center power supplies, industrial UPS, and even solar inverters,” said one analyst. “The real inflection point is coming as GaN moves into higher power and higher voltage segments, traditionally dominated by SiC.”
Infineon Technologies, another major player in the space, predicts that “the relevance of comprehensive power systems will increase, with GaN manifesting its role due to its benefits in efficiency, density and size. Given that cost-parity with silicon is in sight, we will see an increased adoption rate for GaN this year and beyond, according to Johannes Schoiswohl, head of Infineon’s GaN business line.
Today, Infineon announced that its 300-millimeter wafer GaN product plans were on track, “with first samples available for customers,” during the fourth quarter. The company believes demand for GaN was increasing and that the “fully scaled-up 300 millimeter-GaN manufacturing will allow us to deliver highest value to our customers even faster while moving towards cost parity for comparable silicon and GaN products,” according to Schoiswohl.
Infineon and Renesas are not alone in their GaN ambitions. The leading suppliers in the GaN power market include Innoscience, Power Integrations, Navitas, Infineon Technologies, and Renesas itself, which has rapidly climbed the ranks following its acquisition of Transphorm. Unlike many competitors whose GaN offerings have been limited to lower power devices, Renesas now boasts a diverse portfolio spanning both high- and low-power applications. To date, the company has shipped over 20 million GaN devices, representing more than 300 billion hours of field usage.
At its recent Investors’ Day conference, Renesas executives emphasized the strategic importance of GaN to the company’s future. “We are expanding in GaN, which we can serve and leverage to all the major growth markets, AI, data centers, industrial, automotive, and energy,” said Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO of Renesas, during the company’s Investors’ Day conference.
Renesas is scaling up manufacturing, moving from 6-inch to 8-inch wafers, and has announced a partnership with Polar Semiconductor to unlock new performance potential and expand GaN’s impact across a variety of applications. “The move to 200mm wafers isn’t just scaling. it’s redefining the future of power electronics,” said Parikh at the International Semiconductor Executive Summits earlier this year.
“We are expanding in GaN, which we can serve and leverage to all the major growth markets, AI, data centers, industrial, automotive, and energy.”
Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO, Renesas Electronics
The technical advantages of GaN are clear: higher switching frequency, lower power losses, and smaller form factors compared to both silicon and SiC. Renesas’ d-mode GaN devices use an integrated low-voltage silicon MOSFET, achieving seamless normally-off operation while capturing the efficiency benefits of GaN. This configuration allows the devices to be driven with standard gate drivers, simplifying design and lowering the barrier to adoption for system developers.
“Our GaN FETs combine high-efficiency technology with a silicon-compatible gate drive input, significantly reducing switching power loss while retaining the operating simplicity of silicon FETs,” Parikh explained.
Primit Parikh, VP, GaN Business Division, Renesas
The market is responding. GaN is now being deployed in applications well beyond its early foothold in smartphone chargers and adapters, moving into higher power and higher voltage segments such as data centers, renewable energy, and e-mobility. Yole Group expects a significant deployment of GaN solutions in the coming 3 to 4 years, with data center and automotive sectors leading the charge.
Renesas’ strategy is to offer not just discrete devices, but complete solutions, including reference designs, ICs, and system-in-package products tailored for everything from server power supplies to e-mobility chargers. By controlling the entire supply chain (from epitaxial wafer growth to advanced packaging) Renesas aims to ensure both quality and supply security, a growing concern in today’s geopolitical climate.
As the industry stands at a crossroads, Renesas’ decision to double down on GaN, even as it pauses SiC, is both a calculated risk and a clear statement of intent. “The power densities and efficiencies that lead to lower system costs from GaN are now becoming a necessity for large, growing market areas of AI, server, industrial, and e-mobility,” Parikh said. “We are already enabling adoption with end customers today for these exciting products.”
Bottom line: With GaN revenues expected to soar and its role in power electronics expanding rapidly, Renesas and its rivals are racing to shape the future of energy-efficient, high-density power systems, one GaN device at a time.
Bolaji Ojo is founder and editor-in-chief of TechSplicit. He can be reached at bojo@techsplicit.com.
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