Name: (PU15-2) AI’s Impact on Electrifying Our Planet: Powering Sustainable and Smarter Energy Infrastructure
Uploaded: 2025-10-15T14:35:07.322Z
Duration: 28 min 24 s
Description: (PU15-2) AI’s Impact on Electrifying Our Planet: Powering Sustainable and Smarter Energy Infrastructure

Transcript for "(PU15-2) AI’s Impact on Electrifying Our Planet: Powering Sustainable and Smarter Energy Infrastructure": Hello again. Let's move to our next, keynote. These, the following keynote will be, presented by Paul Wheeler from, Navitas. He is vice president and the general manager of their SICK business unit. Paul is a seasoned semiconductor executive, and he has more than twenty five years of, global experience. In his keynote, Paul will explore, the role which AI is expected to play in the electrification of our planet, Key impacts on cloud AI, edge AI, power grid, and renewable energy integration will be examined. Opportunities for wideband gap technologies will be outlined across all the major sectors. And I'm now handing over the word to Paul. Hi, everyone. My name is Paul Wheeler, and I'm the VPGM of the silicon carbide business here in Navitas Semiconductor. I'd like to thank you all for joining my session entitled AI's impact on electrifying our planet, powering sustainable and smarter energy infrastructure. Finally, in 2014, Navitas is a leader in wide bandgap power semiconductors such as GaN and silicon carbide. With the increasing demand for more and for more efficient energy transfer and conversion, Navitas has grown over 700% in the last three years. At Navitas, we are innovators with over 300 patents issued or pending. Along with a strong financial base, Navitas is well positioned for future success in growing markets, such as AI data centers, energy and grid, performance computing, and industrial. Navitas is a pure play next generation power semiconductor company. Focusing on GaN and SIC innovations, Navitas is revolutioning the power electronics space, solving complex customer challenges such as power density, cost reduction, and time to market. Ultimately leading to a greener planet. In this slide, we show a timeline of some of the key milestones that the task has achieved. On the very left, we can see that Genesysq was founded in 02/2004, which equates to over twenty years of research and development in silicon carbide. And, notably, Genesysk was the first company to release an ultra high voltage 6.5 kV SICK product in 02/2010. Navitas was founded in 2014 and officially IPO'd on the Nasdaq in 2021, subsequently acquiring Genesys in 2022 to create a pure play, wide bandgap power electronics company. Fast forwarding to this year, 2025, Navitas has had many successes, including NVIDIA officially announcing Navitas as a core technology partner for the future AI power requirements. In addition, Nabitas was the world's first automotive qualified GaN IC and the world's first commercially released 650 volt bidirectional GaN fast IC. Navitas believes that our innovation will position us for success in the new power roadmaps for AI data centers. Due to the ever increasing demand for compute power, the number of data centers globally has doubled over the last decade. And by 2026, it is expected that the power consumption will reach a staggering 1,000 terawatt hours, more than double that of 2022. By 2030, it is forecast that The US alone will reach this 1,000 terawatt hours level. This growth in power consumption is a global phenomenon. And by 2030, it is forecast that data centers will account for approximately 8% of the world's global electricity usage, primarily driven by the increasing demands of AI data centers. Legacy data centers use a 54 volt in rack power distribution architecture, which is limited to approximately 200 kilowatts due to multiple factors, but mainly due to I squared r losses in the copper cable. Machine learning, AI, and high performance compute requires significant power. In fact, power in the order of megawatts. And as such, the power system needs to be rearchitected. This new architecture is based on a plus minus 400 volt or plus 800 volt high voltage DC backbone that directly powers the IT racks. This high voltage DC architecture brings significant benefits, including major copper cost reductions, system level simplification, and significant efficiency improvements. As highlighted previously, it is forecasted that the data center power consumption will exceed 1,000 terawatt hours in the next five years, which is equivalent to over 100 x growth in server rack power. To meet these challenging power density and efficiency goals, next generation power electronics are required. And this is where GaN and silicon carbide wide band gap materials have a unique value proposition. Navitas believes that the data center market for GaN and silicon carbide could reach over 2,500,000,000.0 by 02/1930, representing over 40 x growth in that market space. Traditional data centers traditional data center power architectures are based on a 12 volt intermediate bus voltage with the power electronics mainly being silicon based. However, hyperscale based data centers are already moving to the 48 volt based architecture, which require higher power densities and efficiencies. This results in wide bandgap based power electronics, such as GaN and silicon carbide becoming must have technologies in the IT rack. These systems target up to 90% total energy efficiency and have a significant silicon carbide and GaN opportunity, we believe reaching up to 1,400,000,000 in 02/1930. However, these 48 volt data centers still use the iron transformer based conversion from grid to 220 volt three phase AC. The next phase in this evolution will be the 800 volt systems where both the ACDC conversion inside the rack and the grid conversion to three phase twenty twenty volts AC are replaced by ultra high voltage solid state transformers to deliver 800 volts DC directly to the rack. The second stage conversion is then 800 volt DC to 48 volts DC. This also leverages both GaN and silicon carbide. This evolution of power distribution facility facilities, server rack power increasing from the 10 to 20 kilowatt range for traditional 12 volt data centers to megawatt level systems and expand the GaN and SICK power electronics TAM to well over 2,000,000,000 by 2030. If we take a high level view of the data center power distribution network from grid to process, We can see that Navitas is perfectly positioned to support every major power substation. Our high voltage silicon carbide can serve the solid state transformer, the UPS or uninterrupted power supplies, and the cooling systems that are critical to ensure that the server racks remain at the required temperature. For the 800 volt high voltage DC system, our portfolio of silicon carbide, GaN, and associated drivers to maximize efficiency and meet the challenging power density goals of these advanced power systems. Traditional data center power distribution systems use bulky and lossy line frequency transformers to step down the voltage of the three of the 34.5 kV or 13.8 kV, three phase AC to 480 volt three phase AC at a frequency of roughly 50 to 60 hertz. These systems work well for stable power grids, but struggle with the modern power demands that can vary very dramatically. The next generation of data centers will use solid state transformers. These are smart devices that replace bulky iron transformers with power electronics and advanced software control. Using Navitas, I will be using carbide products at 2.3 kV and 3.3 kV. Substantially transformers can take the 34.5 kV three PSAC or 13.8 kV three PSAC and directly convert to 800 volts DC at kilohertz range frequencies. This implementation significantly reduces size, improves efficiency, and enables scalability for high power data center locations. As we move into server racks, there are 3,000,000 power architectures, modular power, which uses on shelf integrated power supplies. These systems are generally limited to six to eight kilowatts per server tray. In the middle, we have centralized power, which eliminates the on tray power supplies and leverages a centralized power shelf with a 48 volt DC black plate, enabling up to a few 100 kilowatts per rack and significantly improved power density. On the right, we have the next generation power architecture that directly delivers 800 volt HVDC via backplane, enabling mega watt levels of power per rack. For the purpose of today's presentation, we will focus on the new 800 volt HVDC architecture. The new HVDC architecture removes the need for ACDC conversion in the power rack. This has multiple benefits. Firstly, it simplify it simplifies the power architecture and opens valuable space, enabling higher compute density and efficient airflow airflow. Furthermore, due to the direct HVDC feed, significant savings and cabling reduced cost and significantly improved efficiency, with these next generation systems planning to operate at over 96% efficiency in the megawatt power range. This revolutionary power architecture will drive significant change in data center power distribution, space, requiring a complete redesign of legacy systems to take advantage of the power density and efficiency levels it can provide. As such, new equipment, racks, and safety considerations to the high voltage DC nature of the system will need to be taken into consideration. As we drill into the DC DC conversion within the rack, there are generally two stages, The 800 volt to 48 volt or 12 volt intermediate bus, and then the 48 to 12 volt, six volt, or maybe in the very, very in the very near future, down to the one volt GPU level. For the 800 volt to 48 volt stage, a typical configuration is either a 10 kilowatt full brick or a two by six kilowatt half brick solution. Navitas has developed a 10 kilowatt full brick reference design. This leverages Navitas' six fifty volt and our newly available 100 volt. This reference design is capable of switching at over one megahertz and achieving over 98% efficiency, which we believe is world leading in this space. The next conversion stage is the low voltage or IBC, which means intermediate bus converter, which converts 48 volts down to 12 volts or directly to the GPU level. Two typical solutions are an embedded solution on the processor board next to the GPU. This allows very high power density and flexibility to the designer's layout. The second solution is the IBC model is the IBC module, which integrates all of the power electronics, including planar magnetics, into a quarter brick solution. This enables shorter design cycles and scalability. Navitas offers gain solutions that are incorporated in both applications. In summary, the exponential growth of AI power demands is transforming the data center landscape and forcing a disrupt a disruptive power grid technology investment based on advanced power electronics, such as white band gap white band gap materials, light GaN and silicon carbide. Traditional silicon based power electronics at the 54 volt architectures are no longer sufficient to meet the the multi megawatt requirements of next generation AI factories and hyperscalers. The turn the transition to an 800 volt VDC architecture direct from grid to GPU marks a fundamental inflection point enabling megawatt rack level power delivery. At Navitas, our Genesys high voltage MOSFETs for AC grid to 800 volt conversion and solid state transformers are a breakthrough development for these new applications. Furthermore, our GaN fast ICs and discrete devices for high frequency, high density DC DC conversion address the full channel power delivery from grid to GPU. Navitas, being committed to innovation, delivers robust, efficient, and scalable solutions purpose fit for AI factories. With that, I'd like to conclude my presentation and open up for questions. I'd like to thank the audience for your time, in listening to my presentation. Thank you very much. Yeah. Now we're trying to, set up a q and a session, but, unluckily, our speaker, Paul Wheeler, has technical issues to get on board. So we will try that, in the next couple of minutes whether we get him, up. For the moment, please just visit the resource center. And, if we if Paul can manage to, to solve his technical issues and is available for the q and a, we will prompt you back onto stage. For the moment, please visit the resource center with microsites from leading power electronics companies and, also take a look at, how to win a $100 Amazon gift card with our price drop. Stay tuned for a couple of minutes, please.