Renesas Electronics Corporation announced that it is supporting efficient power conversion and distribution for the 800 Volt Direct Current power architecture announced by NVIDIA, helping fuel the next wave of smarter, faster AI infrastructure. As GPU-driven AI workloads intensify and data center power consumption scales into multi-hundred megawatt territory, modern data centers must adopt power architectures that are both energy optimized and scalable. Wide bandgap semiconductors such as GaN FET switches are quickly emerging as a key solution due to their faster switching, lower energy losses, and superior thermal management.
Moreover, GaN power devices will enable the development of 800V direct current buses within racks to significantly reduce distribution losses and the need for large bus bars, while still supporting reuse of 48V components via DC/DC step-down converters. Renesas' GaN based power solutions are especially suited for the task, supporting efficient and dense DC/DC power conversion with operating voltages of 48V to as high as 400V, with the option to stack up to 800V. Based on the LLC Direct Current Transformer (LLC DCX) topology, these converters achieve up to 98% efficiency.
For the AC/DC front-end, Renesas uses bi-directional GaN switches to simplify rectifier designs and increase power density. Renesas REXFET MOSFETs, drivers and controllers complement the BOM of the new DC/DC converters.
