Wise Integration & Navitas target AI data centre power

Wise Integration and Navitas have agreed to collaborate on power-conversion technology for AI data centres and performance computing systems. The work will combine digital control with gallium nitride and silicon carbide power technologies.

The collaboration will cover power supply units for AI data centres and power applications for AI PCs, high-end workstations, gaming desktops and industrial systems. The companies also plan to examine additional power-conversion topologies for high-voltage and high-power uses across infrastructure from grid to chip.

The agreement brings together Wise Integration's distributed digital-control technology and Navitas' wide-bandgap semiconductor products, including GaN and SiC. Rising energy demand from AI data centres and other performance-computing workloads is increasing requirements for efficiency, power density and overall system design.

That shift is also changing the design of power systems inside data-centre infrastructure. AI data-centre power supply units and related energy systems increasingly require different conversion architectures to improve efficiency and raise power density, according to the companies.

Data centre focus

Power conversion has become a more visible part of the AI infrastructure supply chain as operators deploy more compute-intensive systems. Higher rack densities and heavier use of accelerators have increased attention on how electricity is converted and distributed, particularly in equipment between the grid connection and the processor.

In that context, GaN and SiC have gained ground as alternatives to traditional silicon in some power applications because they support different switching characteristics and thermal performance. Digital-control systems, meanwhile, are used to manage conversion behaviour and system response in real time.

Wise Integration, based in France, focuses on digital control for power converters that use wide-bandgap devices. Navitas, a US-listed semiconductor company, develops power semiconductors based on GaN and SiC.

The tie-up is intended to combine those areas of expertise in systems aimed at AI data centres and other computing hardware with high energy requirements. The effort will target more compact and efficient power-supply designs.

Ghislain Kaiser, Chief Executive Officer of Wise Integration, described the company's view of the technical challenge. "Wide-bandgap technologies are unlocking new levels of power density and efficiency, but realizing their full potential requires advanced control. With WiseWare, we bring the digital intelligence needed to optimize power conversion in real time. Combining this capability with Navitas' GaN and SiC technologies can enable more efficient, compact, and high-performance power-supply solutions for AI data centers and next-generation computing systems," said Kaiser.

Broader computing market

Although the collaboration centres on AI data-centre power supply units, the companies also linked the work to a wider computing market. It will extend to AI PCs, high-end workstations, gaming desktops and industrial systems, where growing processing demands can place more pressure on power delivery and thermal management.

Navitas said those conditions are driving demand for hardware that can meet higher efficiency requirements and tighter physical constraints. The company presented the partnership as a way to address changing system needs in both centralised infrastructure and end systems.

Vipin Bothra, Vice President, Global Solution Marketing, Navitas Semiconductor, said: "AI data centers and performance computing applications are creating unprecedented need for solutions that deliver higher efficiency and better power density. By combining Navitas' next-generation GaN and SiC power technologies with Wise Integration's digital-control expertise, we can deliver solutions that help customers address these rapidly evolving system requirements."

Wise Integration describes itself as a fabless company focused on digital-control solutions for wide-bandgap power devices. The business is headquartered in Hyères, France, and operates a design centre in Ottawa and an R&D centre in Grenoble, with an Asian subsidiary in Hong Kong and offices in Taiwan and South Korea.

Navitas is known for semiconductor products based on GaN and SiC, materials used in power electronics for applications such as charging, data-centre infrastructure and industrial systems. In this collaboration, the companies will focus on combining those semiconductor technologies with digital control to explore different ways of handling high-voltage and high-power conversion demands from grid to chip.