On Semiconductor will acquire silicon carbide JFET technology to enhance its power supply portfolio for artificial intelligence data centers

     Onsemi announced that it has reached an agreement with Qorvo to acquire its Silicon Carbide junction field-effect transistor (SiC JFET) technology business and its subsidiary, United Silicon Carbide, for $115 million in cash. The acquisition will compliment ON's extensive EliteSiC power supply portfolio, enabling it to address the demand for high energy efficiency and high power density in the AC-DC segment of artificial intelligence (AI) data center power supplies, and will accelerate ON's deployment in emerging markets such as electric vehicle circuit breakers and solid state circuit breakers (SSCBS).

     SiC JFET has ultra-low on-resistance per unit area, less than half that of any other technology. They also support off-the-shelf drives that have been commonly used for decades using silicon-based transistors. Combined with these advantages, the adoption of SiC JFET can accelerate development, reduce energy consumption and reduce system costs, providing significant value to power designers and data center operators.

     "As Al workloads become more complex and energy-intensive, reliable SiC JFETs that provide high energy efficiency and can handle high pressures will become increasingly important." "With the addition of Qorvo's industry-leading SiC JFET technology, our smart power portfolio will provide customers with another option to optimize energy consumption and increase power density," said Simon Keeton, president and general manager of On's Power Solutions business Group.