Wise-integration Raises €2.7m to Miniaturize Chargers
Article By : Anne-Françoise Pelé
Wise-integration is a spin-off from CEA-Leti that develops GaN-based integrated circuits (ICs) to maximize power supply efficiency and compactness.
Wise-integration, a spin-off from CEA-Leti that develops GaN-based integrated circuits (ICs) to maximize power supply efficiency and compactness, announced it has raised €2.7 million in an initial round of financing.
GaN power market
In 2020, the GaN power market doubled thanks to a robust penetration of GaN devices in fast charger applications, reported market research firm Yole Développement. The adoption of GaN in the smartphone market is fueled by system compactness, high efficiency, and adapter multifunctionalities.
“While GaN continues its ascension in the mass consumer market, the markets for telecom & datacom and automotive & mobility will benefit from the “economy of scale effect” and price erosion,” Yole analyst Ahmed Ben Slimane commented. The GaN power market is set to surpass the $1 billion mark in 2026.
Miniaturizing chargers
Founded in February 2020, Wise-integration builds on a decade of Leti’s R&D on the monolithic integration of GaN on silicon power functions to:
• Implement new system architectures to get the most out of the performance offered by GaN power components;
• Deliver high-frequency operation with integrated GaN components (GaN ICs) to make electronic systems smaller;
• Minimize transformer losses with planar and new magnetic transformers;
• Use soft switching (ZVS, ZCS) to reduce energy losses;
• Improve energy efficiency: 98% vs. 94% at the state of the art;
• Increase power densities with integrated GaN circuits that operate at high frequency (>1MHz).
Wise-integration has developed the WiseGan GaN IC and combined it with the WiseWare patented system architecture to disrupt the power supply market. The French startup indeed claimed its platform reduces the charger’s size, weight, and energy consumption by a factor of 6. It is suitable for medium power applications from 30W to 3kW in three main markets: consumers for computer chargers, electric mobility with e-bike chargers, and industrial with data center power supply.
The funds will be used to support the industrialization and commercialization of the first generation of its WiseGan IC by 2022. Wise-integration also aims to further develop its WiseWare power conversion platform.
“The major advantage of our technology is our ability to significantly increase the integration of power supplies while improving the energy conversion efficiency and the cost of the systems,” commented Thierry Bouchet, president of Wise-integration, in a statement. “Our privileged access to the GaN technology available from the world leader TSMC gives us a significant production capacity at an attractive cost to address the mass market.”
Wise-integration said it uses the newly qualified 650V GaN/Si available technology from TSMC and manages the entire industrialisation flow from device specification to system assembly.
Led by Supernova Invest, the €2.7 million round included the participation of financing Région Sud Investissement, Angels for Greentech, Crédit Agricole Alpes Développement, and the Foreis endowment fund.
The research team had been granted seed funding as one of the winners of the national i-Lab 2019 Competition financed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and supported by the Innovation and Industry Fund.
Wise-integration, whose four co-founders combine 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, expects to reach 20 people by 2022.
This article was originally published on EE Times Europe.
Anne-Françoise Pelé is editor-in-chief of eetimes.eu and EE Times Europe.