Leveraging the FinFET Structure for Power: Applications and Use Cases

What happened

This is a technical overview (background) article discussing the roles of the FinFET structure and vertical GaN in high-power electronics (industrial, EVs, AI data centers); it contains no price or supply-demand movement. Key points: FinFETs are moving from logic to the power path, with foundries such as GlobalFoundries offering FinFET processes; Empower Semiconductor (now part of Analog Devices) developed its FinFast platform around ultra-fast FinFET-based power transistors; Claros (now part of Navitas) announced it will manufacture its integrated voltage regulators (IVRs) on Samsung Foundry's US-based 14-nm FinFET process. According to Empower, its Crescendo IVRs achieve roughly 20x faster transient response than conventional solutions; by paralleling up to 50 IVRs of roughly 60 A each, more than 3,000 A can be supplied to the load, with 2x lower voltage droop, which the company says yields an additional 15% reduction in xPU power for a typical AI workload. In May 2026, Analog Devices said it had entered a definitive agreement to buy Empower Semiconductor for $1.5 billion in cash, and the acquisition closed in July 2026. On vertical GaN: in 2024 Power Integrations acquired Odyssey Semiconductor's assets to develop vertical-conduction GaN FETs with 650 V and 1,200 V blocking voltages; onsemi introduced its proprietary GaN-on-GaN vertical architecture (vGaN), saying it reduces energy loss by almost 50%, manufactured at its fab in Syracuse, NY, acquired from NexGen Power Systems at the end of 2024; in October 2025, MIT spin-out Vertical Semiconductor raised an $11 million seed round led by Playground Global, demonstrated its vertical GaN process for 100 V to 1.2 kV device classes on 8-inch wafers, and hopes to have a fully integrated product out by the end of the year. The source does not state any cause related to price impact or market supply-demand.

Impact and signal

Affected components and suppliers

Source and time

Source: Power Electronics News · 10/23/2026 · View original source