IN Brief:
- Cambridge GaN Devices and NXP have formed a collaboration on GaN power solutions.
- The work targets data-centre, automotive, and industrial power-conversion systems.
- GaN adoption is moving from device performance toward validated system-level architectures.
CGD and NXP target GaN system design
Cambridge GaN Devices and NXP Semiconductors have formed a long-term collaboration to develop GaN-based power-conversion solutions for data-centre, automotive, and industrial applications.
The collaboration gives NXP access to CGD’s GaN power devices, early access to next-generation developments, and the UK company’s process and technology expertise. CGD will gain access to NXP’s processor and analogue portfolios, system knowledge, and commercial reach.
The work is focused on markets where power density, efficiency, and system reliability are becoming harder to balance. AI data centres are increasing rack-level power demand, while automotive traction inverters and supporting power electronics are under pressure to reduce losses, cut weight, and improve thermal behaviour.
CGD’s ICeGaN technology is designed to simplify GaN adoption by allowing devices to be driven in a similar way to conventional silicon or silicon carbide devices. Its monolithic approach supports gate robustness, paralleling, slew-rate control, and protection functions that can reduce the additional design complexity often associated with discrete GaN power stages.
Fabio Necco, CEO of CGD, said: “By working closely with NXP, we are accelerating the shift towards a new class of GaN-based power electronics. This collaboration is about leveraging GaN performance to increase efficiency, power density and reliability into real-world data centre and automotive systems, where performance, cost and sustainability now must go hand-in-hand.”
The collaboration widens CGD’s activity from device development toward complete power-conversion architectures. Its 650V automotive ICeGaN sampling already placed the technology in the context of inverter design and EV powertrain efficiency. Working with NXP adds a broader system layer around processors, analogue control, and application support.
Wide-bandgap power electronics are increasingly being selected through system evidence rather than device figures alone. Gate drive, protection, PCB layout, thermal design, EMI behaviour, firmware, current sensing, and qualification strategy can all determine whether GaN delivers its expected performance in a converter.
That is why supplier ecosystems are becoming more important. onsemi’s SiC pairing tool and ROHM and AIXTRON’s GaN production scale-up both point to a market where validated designs, manufacturing control, and support infrastructure are becoming as important as raw switching performance.
Data-centre power design is one of the most demanding use cases. Higher rack densities require efficient conversion across multiple voltage domains, while AI accelerators place heavy transient demands on power-delivery networks. GaN’s ability to support higher-frequency switching can reduce passive component size, but only if electromagnetic and thermal behaviour are tightly controlled.
Automotive traction inverters bring a different set of requirements. Low-load efficiency, high current, safety qualification, and parallel operation all affect whether GaN can move from demonstration hardware into production platforms. CGD’s ICeGaN architecture is intended to reduce some of those barriers by easing drive and paralleling requirements.
The NXP relationship gives CGD a route toward more complete reference architectures and customer support. For GaN to win in data-centre and vehicle platforms, it has to arrive as a validated power system, with the surrounding design work reduced enough for customers to adopt it at scale.
