Power Integrations and Ideal Power are working together on a solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) architecture aimed at 800 VDC power distribution in AI data centers, targeting faster fault interruption and lower losses than conventional approaches. The effort combines Power Integrations’ InnoMux-2 high-voltage power conversion ICs with Ideal Power’s B-TRAN bidirectional semiconductor power switch.

The companies say they’ve already built a working prototype and are developing a reference design. The proposed SSCB is described as self-powered and intelligent, using the 800 VDC bus as its input and generating isolated power locally for gate drive, control electronics, sensing, and auxiliary circuits.

On the power-conversion side, the design uses a 1700 V-rated InnoMux-2 device built on Power Integrations’ 1700 V PowiGaN technology. That voltage rating is intended to provide operating margin when connected to an 800 VDC bus. Rather than a single isolated power supply followed by multiple point-of-load converters, InnoMux-2 provides multiple independently regulated outputs, which the companies describe as a path to higher efficiency and a smaller support-power footprint for breaker electronics.

On the protection side, Ideal Power’s B-TRAN switch is used in the 800 V power path to the AI computing load. The core pitch here is an SSCB that can isolate faults much faster than mechanical breakers, without the efficiency penalty that can come with some electronic breaker implementations.

For data center engineers looking at 800 VDC distribution, protection architecture becomes a first-order design constraint: faster fault interruption can reduce the energy let-through during a short event, and lower conduction loss in protection devices matters when you’re moving meaningful current at rack-level power. But “always-on” SSCB designs also have a practical integration problem—control power has to come from somewhere. A self-powered approach that derives isolated rails from the same 800 V bus it’s protecting is a clean concept, assuming it holds up under real fault conditions and protection coordination requirements.

“As AI data centers move toward 800 VDC power architectures, the industry must address new challenges in power conversion, control, and protection at the system level,” said Chris Jacobs, senior vice president of marketing and product strategy at Power Integrations.

“Mechanical breakers are too slow, while previous semiconductor-based breakers have historically been disqualified by high power loss,” said David Somo, CEO of Ideal Power.

Source: Power Integrations