Navitas Semiconductor is advancing wide-bandgap power conversion with its GaNSense™ half-bridge IC technology. This highly integrated solution consolidates the essential building blocks of high-frequency power stages into a single device. Designed around gallium nitride (GaN) switching devices, the platform is a shift from discrete implementations toward monolithic or co-packaged power integration, enabling higher efficiency, faster switching, and tighter system-level optimization.

The GaNSense half-bridge integrates two GaN FETs in a half-bridge topology, along with high-speed gate drivers, level shifting circuitry, bootstrap management, and digital control logic. This integration is particularly significant in GaN-based systems, where parasitic inductance and gate-loop layout sensitivities critically affect switching behavior. By minimizing interconnect parasitics within the package, Navitas effectively reduces voltage overshoot, ringing, and switching losses, issues that typically constrain high-frequency operation in discrete designs.

A notable feature is the implementation of lossless current sensing. Instead of relying on external shunt resistors, which introduce conduction losses and thermal overhead, the IC leverages intrinsic device parameters to infer current, enabling accurate real-time monitoring without efficiency penalties. This sensing capability feeds into an integrated protection suite, including over-current protection (OCP), over-temperature protection (OTP), short-circuit protection, and shoot-through prevention, all managed with nanosecond-scale response times. Such fast protection is essential for GaN devices, given their high slew rates (dv/dt) and current transients.

The GaNSense platform supports MHz-class operation, enabled by GaN’s superior material properties, specifically, its high electron mobility, low gate charge (Qg), and reduced output capacitance (Coss). These characteristics allow for extremely fast transition times, making the IC well-suited for soft-switching topologies such as LLC resonant converters and active-clamp flyback designs. In these topologies, zero-voltage switching (ZVS) or zero-current switching (ZCS) conditions significantly reduce switching losses, allowing designers to push frequencies higher while maintaining thermal efficiency.

Higher switching frequencies directly translate to reduced magnetics size and lower passive component volume, increasing power density. Additionally, the integrated architecture simplifies PCB layout, reduces component count, and improves electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance by tightly controlling switching loops and edge rates within the package.

Another critical aspect is dynamic dead-time control and precise timing coordination between the high-side and low-side GaN FETs. Improper dead-time in high-frequency converters can lead to either increased body diode conduction losses or cross-conduction (shoot-through). Navitas addresses this with optimized internal timing control, ensuring efficient switching transitions while maintaining device reliability.

The GaNSense half-bridge ICs are designed to support a wide range of high-efficiency power conversion applications. These include:

• AC-DC conversion stages, such as totem-pole power factor correction (PFC), where fast switching and low reverse recovery are essential
• Isolated DC-DC converters, particularly LLC and phase-shifted full-bridge topologies used in server power supplies and telecom infrastructure
• High-density fast chargers, where size, efficiency, and thermal constraints are tightly coupled
• Motor drive inverters, where improved switching performance reduces harmonic losses and enhances system efficiency

By integrating multiple discrete elements into a single device, Navitas enables designers to move toward scalable, modular power architectures, reducing design complexity and accelerating time-to-market. The result is a platform that not only improves efficiency but also enhances repeatability and manufacturability.

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About Navitas Semiconductor

Navitas Semiconductor is a pioneer in wide-bandgap power semiconductors, focusing on gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) technologies. Founded in 2014, the company develops highly integrated power ICs under its GaNFast™ and GaNSense™ product families, for applications such as mobile fast charging, data centers, renewable energy systems, and electric mobility.