Renesas Electronics announced its Gen 4+ Super GaN platform, featuring 650 V, 30 milliohm gallium nitride devices for high-power applications. The launch represents the company’s continued investment in GaN technology, following its acquisition of Transphorm and integration with its controller and driver IC product lines.
The Gen 4+ platform delivers a 14% reduction in both RDS(on) and die size compared to previous 35 milliohm devices, directly reducing costs. The switching figure of merit improves by up to 50%, while the output figure of merit increases by more than 20%.
In comparative testing, Renesas demonstrated 10-30% lower losses compared to leading silicon carbide MOSFETs and JFETs in a 4-kilowatt power supply application. “GaN is lower loss versus silicon carbide at any frequency,” explained VP Primit Parikh. “This gap widens at higher frequency, starting from the 100 kilohertz range.”
When questioned about competitive comparisons with other GaN suppliers, Parikh noted their D-mode architecture advantages: “What we do with the 30 milliohm GaN, it needs a 22 to 25 milliohm E-mode GaN” from competitors to achieve equivalent performance.
Traditional silicon power devices have reached physical limits in power conversion applications. “This is the Moore’s Law of power, where power density has been increasing over time,” Parikh explained. “GaN takes off where silicon has plateaued.”
The platform targets infrastructure, server, and data center power supplies, UPS systems, battery energy storage, e-mobility charging infrastructure, and solar inverters. These applications require higher efficiency and compact form factors that conventional silicon cannot provide.
Renesas maintains vertical integration with geographically diversified manufacturing across California, Japan, and Taiwan. “As we like to say in gallium nitride, the process is part of the product,” Parikh emphasized.
The company is scaling from six-inch to eight-inch wafers while carefully evaluating future transitions. “When you go from eight-inch to 12-inch, you go from multi-wafer reactors to single-wafer reactors. That economics is not trivial,” Parikh explained during Q&A.
Regarding 1200V GaN development, Parikh confirmed “we have our 1200 V development on a temporary pause as we focus full blast at our 650, 700 volts and our ecosystem products,” while monitoring market timing with select customers.
Renesas has shifted resources by temporarily suspending silicon carbide development. “Given the market dynamics in silicon carbide, Renesas has temporarily suspended the carbide,” Parikh stated, redirecting investment toward GaN ecosystem expansion.
“Renesas is doubling down on GaN… probably not doubling down, even tripling down,” Parikh noted, reflecting the company’s commitment across power ranges from 25 watts to multiple kilowatts.
Field reliability data shows over 315 billion hours of operation across applications, including server power supplies, industrial UPS systems, and solar micro-inverters. However, Parikh acknowledged that the “majority of GaN insertion as of today has been in the low power charger and adapter markets,” with higher power adoption in early growth phases.
