Renesas Electronics has completed the acquisition of gallium nitride (GaN) device manufacturer Tranphorm for a previous purchase price of $339 million. With the completion of the transaction, Renesas Electronics has also launched 15 GaN based reference designs. Renesas Electronics's acquisition of Transform has intensified competition with Infineon in the GaN device field, as Infineon acquired GaN Systems last year.
The 15 reference designs launched by Renesas Electronics cover a combination of embedded processing, power supply, connectivity, and analog products. This includes the design of Transform's automotive grade GaN technology, which integrates a three in one power system solution for in car battery chargers and electric vehicles.
Chris Allexandre, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Power at Renesas Electronics, said, "By integrating turnkey reference designs from both companies' technologies, customers can immediately benefit from new GaN products. Adding GaN to our product portfolio also strengthens our commitment to developing products and technologies that make people's lives easier. Providing powerful and sustainable power solutions that save energy, reduce costs, and minimize environmental impact is the way to achieve this goal."
Other recent measures taken by Renesas Electronics to strengthen this niche market include opening the Kofu factory, a 300mm wafer fab specifically designed for power products; Add a new silicon carbide (SiC) production line to the Takasaki factory; And reached an agreement with Wolfspeed to ensure stable supply of SiC wafers for the next 10 years.
Transform was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Golita, California. Its predecessor was the University of California, Santa Barbara. Transform is a leading innovator in the GaN semiconductor field, designing, manufacturing, and selling high-performance, highly reliable GaN power products suitable for a wide range of high-voltage power conversion applications. The reference design launched this time includes a 500W two wheeled electric vehicle onboard battery charger, a three in one electric vehicle device: inverter, onboard charger, DC/DC converter, a 240W 48V extended power range AC/DC adapter, and a 3.6KW bidirectional digital power supply DAB system.
Compared with traditional silicon-based devices, wide bandgap (WBG) materials such as GaN and SiC have higher power efficiency, higher switching frequency, and smaller footprint, making them considered key technologies for the next generation of power semiconductors. Driven by the demand for electric vehicles, inverters, data center servers, artificial intelligence (AI), renewable energy, industrial power conversion, and consumer applications, GaN and SiC products are expected to grow rapidly in the next decade.
