- Gallium nitride (GaN) tech is touted as a significantly better performer than conventional silicon semiconductors
- The cooperation aims to bring significant advantages to systems using “power-efficient” GaN technology
An industry leader in gallium nitride (GaN) power integrated circuits, Navitas Semiconductor and Avnet Silica recently announced a compact partnership in order to grow the market in Europe for Navitas’ advanced performance and highly power efficient GaNFast power ICs with GaNSense technology. The close cooperation between the two companies will result in their combined complementary know-how bringing a high level of support and expertise to customers across the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region.
GaN, the official statement explained, is a next-generation semiconductor technology that is growing in importance because of its ability to offer significantly improved performance over conventional silicon semiconductors, while also reducing the energy and physical space needed to deliver that performance. It claimed that GaN runs up to 20 times faster than silicon and can also enable up to three times more power handling or three times faster-charging capability, as well as its size advantages, leading to potentially 20% lower system cost for designers, engineers and power system architects.
“Navitas’ unique GaN technology and its world-renowned monolithically integrated gate driver and feature set will significantly expand our ‘SILICA’ wide-band-gap semiconductor portfolio,” commented Gilles Beltran, President, Avnet Silica. Beltran further added, “Navitas has a depth of expertise in power semiconductors that is unrivalled across the industry for this kind of advanced technology. We envisage this cooperation will bring huge benefits for customers operating at the cutting edge of power system architectures in a wide selection of applications.”
Senior VP of Worldwide Sales at Navitas, David Carroll said that they chose to work with Avnet Silica as one of the premier experts in semiconductor distribution in Europe. “The combination of our highly differentiated solutions together with Avnet Silica’s expertise in technology markets will further support designers and engineers to meet ever more stringent efficiency and size requirements and regulations. With our highly experienced technical team and our European applications lab, together, we can support customers with the best possible solutions and fastest time-to-market.”
Avnet Silica is the European semiconductor specialist division of Avnet and acts as the smart connection between customers and suppliers. The distributor aims to simplify complexity by providing creative solutions, technology and logistics support. Avnet Silica is a partner of leading semiconductor manufacturers and innovative solution providers for many years.
Arizona-headquartered Avnet is a leading global technology distributor and solutions provider for around a century, supporting customers from product idea to design and from prototype to production.
US-based Navitas Semiconductor was set up in 2014, and claims to be the only pure-play, next-gen power-semiconductor company. GaNFast power ICs integrate GaN power and drive, with control, sensing and protection to enable faster charging, higher power density, and greater energy savings. The company’s latest family of GaNSense half-bridge ICs are touted as a fully integrated, single-component solution that enables AC-DC power supplies to achieve MHz switching frequencies in various soft-switching applications.
