Engineering analysis and practical perspectives on semiconductor design, manufacturing and supply chains. We explore technologies, production considerations and industry developments to help teams make informed decisions, including when working in China.
800 VDC receives attention for GaN and SiC conversion, but the less-visible design frontier is the analog protection boundary that must connect, measure, diagnose, and isolate high-power compute trays.
At 800 VDC, Hot Swap Becomes the Analog Control Plane of the AI Rack Read More »
The useful question is not which process is better. It is whether isolation, thermal path, power-device integration, reliability, package, and test assumptions match the product risk.
SOI or BCD for High-Voltage Analog: Decide Before the Schematic Read More »
AI infrastructure is not only a GPU story. Rising rack power, fast load transients, 48 V rack limits, and emerging 800 VDC architectures are moving hard problems back into analog and power IC design. The opportunity is real, but it must be framed as a source-backed design-space opening, not a guaranteed socket.
ADI’s 32-channel HV DAC driver family is in lifecycle transition. Here is what the drive current and settling delta means for OCS MEMS mirror designs – and what you need to validate.
OCS MEMS Driver ICs: Why Quasi-Static Mirrors Need Different Analog Thinking Read More »
Graphene is one of the most over-cited materials in semiconductor presentations. Most commercial “graphene” products are reduced graphene oxide or pyrolytic graphite, not monolayer CVD graphene. Two applications have crossed into commercial production. Everything else — including BEOL interconnects and logic transistors — is laboratory research. This insight separates the genuine near-term opportunities from the decade-long research bets.
High voltage alone does not force a ceramic package. Ceramic becomes compelling when voltage combines with high current, power dissipation, hermeticity, harsh environments, or long-life reliability requirements. The real growth is in EV power electronics, renewable inverters, AI data-center power, industrial drives, RF, aerospace, and medical high-voltage systems.
Co-packaged optics is shipping at the leading edge — Broadcom’s Bailly platform is customer-delivered — but the next switch generation and most published “CPO market size” figures are still a roadmap slide, not a 2026 reality. This insight separates what is actually deployed from what is announced, and shows where the AI-server and CPO power management opportunities genuinely differ in evidence and maturity.
NVIDIA publicly names Navitas in its 800 VDC AI data center power ecosystem, and Navitas has demonstrated relevant GaN power hardware. But the public record does not yet prove a disclosed production socket inside an NVIDIA AI server package. The difference matters for power semiconductor strategy.
Navitas, NVIDIA, and 800 VDC: What the Public Evidence Actually Shows Read More »
TI TIDA-010979 and EPC23102 already validate the humanoid joint GaN thesis — and claim the reference platform position. A generic gate driver or GaN power stage competes head-on with both. The real opening is a companion IC for current sensing, safe-disable, and regen coordination.
GaN for Robot Joints: Why the Gate Driver Opportunity Is More Crowded Than You Think Read More »
The 3D printing market is growing, but the real power analog IC opportunity depends on printer architecture, printhead control, and who owns the waveform socket.