How a 650-V GaN device shrinks footprint in space-constrained data center racks
Design engineers building megawatt-scale AI data centers are running out of board space and thermal headroom before they hit their power limits. That’s because as rack power climbs from roughly 120 kW toward the megawatt scale, space and heat become critical factors in sustaining that power level.
Renesas Electronics claims its dual-side-cooled 650-V GaN device for high-voltage power conversion dissipates heat from both top and bottom. That cuts the footprint significantly and lowers top-side thermal impedance by 10%, allowing designers to move more power through the intermediate bus without redrawing the board or adding more cooling hardware.
The dual-side-cooling device for high-voltage power conversion packs more power into space-constrained megawatt-scale racks by shrinking the footprint by 57% compared with the TOLT package. Source: Renesas
Renesas’ TP65H020G4PLSGBD D-Mode device—enabling dual-side cooling for high-density power conversion in 800-V AI data center architectures—delivers 20 milliohms (mΩ) on-resistance, one of the lowest in its class. It’s available in an 8 x 8 mm PQFN package, which is 57% smaller than the existing 10 x 15 mm TOLT package, and handles more power in less space.
The device—based on Renesas’ Gen IV Plus GaN architecture—is purpose-built for the megawatt-scale demands driving next-generation AI data centers supporting up to 700-V power operation. It offers low gate charge and output capacitance. It also includes a built-in freewheeling diode with minimal reverse recovery and a high threshold voltage that operates without a negative gate bias.
The 650-V GaN device is built for the 800-V DC/DC intermediate bus converter (IBC) stage, which steps down to 48 V, 12 V, or 6 V, along with the battery backup and capacitor bank stages of the sidecar power rack. Design engineers can drive it with a standard silicon gate driver, switch into the MHz frequency range to minimize passive components, and cut overall BOM cost without requiring a specialized E-mode driver.
Renesas claims it has validated the 650-V GaN device on a 6 kW, 800 V-to-48 V LLC DC transformer reference design. The 650-V GaN device, already being sampled by major AI data center OEMs and ODMs, will be showcased at the OCP Global Summit on October 12-15, 2026, in San Jose, California.
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