APEC 2025: Power Electronics Innovation in Focus

Electropages was on the ground at APEC 2025 in Atlanta to explore the technologies shaping the future of power electronics. This year’s event brought together key players advancing everything from bidirectional GaN for EVs to ultra-efficient reference designs, high-density power systems, and next-gen packaging. Here’s a recap of the companies we connected with and the major updates they shared at the show.

Advanced Energy: Scaling Power for Hyperscale Demands

Advanced Energy demonstrated its latest high-power shelf systems for AI and data centre infrastructure. Designed around OCP standards, the company’s CRPS and MCRPS modules deliver power densities of up to 100W per cubic inch and scale from 18kW to 72kW per shelf. These systems support both 21-inch and 19-inch rack formats and can be configured to deliver up to one megawatt per rack. With support for higher-voltage distribution architectures such as 400V and 600V DC, the designs aim to minimise copper losses and reduce overall system cost while maintaining efficiency and reliability at scale.

Danisense: Plug-and-Measure Current Sensors with TEDS

Danisense launched a significant upgrade to its metrology-grade current sensors with the addition of TEDS (Transducer Electronic Data Sheet) functionality. Going beyond the IEEE 1451 standard, these sensors embed model-specific performance data such as offset drift, gain error, phase shift, and calibration limits directly in the sensor. Once connected, test equipment can automatically configure itself using this stored data—enabling a plug-and-measure workflow. Danisense also supports both voltage and current output configurations, broadening the use case across different lab setups. The company is also expanding its presence in the North American market through an exclusive partnership with GMW Associates, ensuring shorter lead times and local calibration support.

ITECH Electronics: Versatile Power Test Platform

ITECH brought its IT7900 series to APEC—a feature-rich family of power supplies and regenerative electronic loads aimed at advanced testing scenarios. The units support four output coupling modes: AC, DC, AC+DC, and DC+AC, with built-in functionality for surge, cycle, and list-based programming. Users can simulate complex grid conditions, inverter behaviour, or battery response characteristics in both single-phase and three-phase environments. The regenerative capability allows power to be fed back into the grid during load simulations, improving energy efficiency in test labs and lowering operational costs.

REXGEAR: Compact, Scalable DC Power

REXGEAR showcased the IT6600C—a 42kW bidirectional DC power supply with one of the highest power densities in the industry. Housed in a 3U rackmount chassis, the unit supports parallel operation up to 10MW, making it ideal for high-power system simulation. It offers true constant current mode and fast transient response, crucial for battery emulation, renewable energy R&D, and powertrain development. The unit supports multiple comms protocols including USB, CAN, GPIB, and digital I/O, enabling integration into automated test systems or remote control setups.

Power Integrations: High-Efficiency Switching and GaN Innovation

Power Integrations introduced two key technologies during APEC. The new TinySwitch-5 family is targeted at low-profile, compact flyback converters for appliances and industrial systems. It delivers up to 175W without a heatsink, meeting EU standby requirements of under 300mW and supporting full-load efficiency up to 92%. 

Power Integrations also presented a 1700V GaN-based integrated switch designed for high-voltage single-stage converters. The design features primary-side ZVS achieved without active clamps, enabled by controlled reverse current from the SR MOSFET. It supports multi-output power supplies with ±1% voltage regulation, making it suitable for industrial infrastructure, renewable energy systems, and high-density power front ends.

Navitas: GaN for EV Onboard Charging and V2H

Navitas introduced its latest innovation: a production-ready 650V bidirectional GaNFast power IC. Unlike traditional SiC-based two-stage designs, Navitas enables single-stage topologies that eliminate bulky PFC stages and large DC link capacitors. This results in reduced BOM, lower board height, and increased switching frequency—up to 600kHz. The design also supports bidirectional energy flow, opening the door to V2H (vehicle-to-home) applications. The technology is already featured in the latest Tesla Cybertruck onboard charger, highlighting its real-world viability in next-gen EV architectures.

Texas Instruments: Smart Protection and GaN Integration

Texas Instruments showcased its 48V, 20A smart eFuses, which combine protection, monitoring, and scalability in a compact form factor. Designed for data centre and telecom power distribution, the eFuses include integrated fault logging (blackbox), adjustable protection thresholds, and a GUI for configuration and monitoring. The devices are stackable, enabling engineers to scale from 1kW to 10kW+ systems using the same building block. 

TI also demonstrated its latest integrated GaN devices in industry-standard TO-LL packages. These parts combine power stage and gate driver in one, reducing parasitics and simplifying thermal management. Applications include 3.6kW+ converters using totem-pole PFC and LLC topologies in server and industrial PSUs.

Pulsiv: Award-Winning Energy Efficiency

Pulsiv was awarded the PSMA Global Energy Efficiency Award for its 65W USB-C reference design. Based on its OSMIUM platform, the design achieves 96% peak efficiency and significantly reduces heat dissipation. Unlike traditional switching architectures, Pulsiv’s approach maintains high efficiency across a wide input range and allows designers to remove heatsinks altogether in many cases. The design is suitable for chargers, adapters, and compact industrial power supplies. This recognition marks a significant milestone for Pulsiv and sets a new benchmark for sustainable energy design. 

Learn more here.

Menlo Micro: The Ideal Switch™ in Power and RF Applications

Menlo Micro continues to lead the MEMS switching space with its Ideal Switch™ technology—bringing the mechanical reliability of a relay together with the speed, size, and efficiency of a solid-state device. The switches are capable of >3 billion cycles, operate at sub-millisecond speeds, and handle kilowatt-class power in miniature packages. Their MM9200 device is a 300V-capable, low-resistance switch array in a compact 6.5mm × 6mm form factor. Applications range from power routing and protection to RF switching and industrial controls. Menlo’s U.S.-based MEMS fab, Ideal Fab™, is now operational and will scale to thousands of wafers per month as part of the company's domestic manufacturing strategy. 

Learn more here.

Saras Micro Devices: Power Delivery in Advanced Packaging

Saras Micro Devices is addressing one of the most pressing challenges in system design: the limitations of today’s power delivery networks. Using its proprietary STILE™ embedded packaging platform, the company integrates passive components directly into the substrate, minimising parasitics and enabling near-die voltage regulation. Saras is targeting high-performance computing, AI acceleration, and networking markets where conventional power delivery approaches are no longer sufficient. The company is a key partner in two major CHIPS Act-funded programs—SHIELD USA and SMART Packaging—supporting the development of advanced heterogeneous integration and U.S.-based manufacturing capability. Their new Arizona-based facility further anchors their position in the future of domestic advanced packaging. Learn more here.

Renesas: Complete Lithium-Ion Battery Management Platform

Renesas unveiled its new R-BMS F lithium-ion battery management platform at APEC 2025. This complete solution includes a production-ready reference design with pre-validated, ASIL-D compliant firmware, streamlining the development process for high-reliability energy storage systems. Supporting applications in industrial, residential, and commercial energy storage, the R-BMS F platform integrates essential functional safety features, high-voltage cell monitoring, and a modular architecture suitable for both small- and large-scale battery packs. With this release, Renesas aims to reduce time-to-market for BMS developers while delivering robust system-level performance in compliance with global safety standards. 

Learn more here.

Conclusion

From advanced GaN and MEMS switching to scalable power systems, award-winning efficiency, and next-gen embedded packaging, APEC 2025 showcased the technologies that will define the future of power electronics. The companies we spoke with are addressing real-world challenges—power density, thermal performance, supply chain resilience, and system-level efficiency—with practical, deployable solutions. As electrification, AI acceleration, and infrastructure demands continue to grow, these innovations will play a critical role in enabling smarter, more efficient, and more reliable designs. Electropages will continue to follow these developments closely throughout 2025 and beyond.