Electronic Design Weekly: Sept. 28, 2026
In This Issue
- Editorial: Powerful Packaging
- Featured Content
- New Products
- Power Electronics Packaging
- Multimedia on ElectronicDesign
- Editor's Choice: From the ElectronicDesign Archives
- Editor's Weekly Picks
- Illustrated Engineering
- Electronic Design Word of the Week
- New in Electronic Design's Member Library
- More Electronic Design Weekly
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Editorial: Powerful Packaging
From new semiconductor materials and process technologies to more advanced packaging and circuit design, engineers have a lot of different levers to pull to maximize power density.
Out of all of those options, packaging is emerging as one of the most consequential methods. With its isolated TO-247-4 package, Navitas is integrating the same ceramic substrate widely used in high-power modules, bringing high-voltage isolation directly into SiC MOSFETs. With its MagPack technology, Texas Instruments is molding a power inductor around the DC-DC converter to form a power-module-in-a-chip. And with their integrated voltage regulators (IVRs), startups like Ferric, Empower, and Endura are developing power ICs small enough to sit in the same package as a GPU.
One of the latest innovations is from onsemi with its Embedded Power Platform (EPP). Rather than combining power, gate-driver, and control-logic dies on a circuit board, inside a package, or on top of a standard power module, EPP integrates these heterogenous dies inside a silicon wafer and connects them through wafer-level redistribution layers, turning the chip into its own package.
By cramming power dies closer together, it reduces parasitic inductance. By putting them into the same package as the gate driver, it shortens the gate loop. Both help boost switching frequencies.
EPP also enables configurable combinations of power devices. Several power dies can be placed in parallel to reduce the on-resistance (RDS(on)) of the device, said onsemi, which in turn reduces conduction losses and boosts efficiency, both particularly important in solid-state circuit breakers (SSCBs) and other power-distribution points in data centers. It can also configure the power dies in a half-bridge for solar inverters, EV traction inverters, and grid-connected battery energy storage systems (BESS).
The company explained that the approach is designed to accommodate silicon, SiC, and GaN, as well as future generations of power devices, and it can integrate high-voltage isolation. "We can change the type of power device and adapt to different power and voltage levels, so it's a flexible architecture that's designed to address all the markets that we want to play in," said Allyson Fairchild at onsemi.
The idea behind EPP extends beyond any one approach to advanced packaging. As power densities rise, there comes a point when improving the power semiconductor by itself can only do so much.
In this issue, we're digging into how packaging itself is increasingly becoming a source of differentiation in power electronics market. For future coverage, subscribe to Electronic Design’s "Power and Analog" newsletter (click here) and have it delivered directly to your inbox.
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Globe and video wallEditor's Choice: From the ElectronicDesign Archives
These articles were chosen by the editors at ElectronicDesign that complement the new articles above. They’re included in our regular newsletters.
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IoT_Power_Silicon_Labs_StockAndy's Picks from Around the Web
EVs are now nine times cheaper than petrol or diesel to drive in the UK. Link
Hyundai's head of R&D expects that small-volume cars with solid-state batteries will hit the market within five years. Link
Anthropic prospectus shows $2 trln IPO ambition after November US election despite $42B loss, Reuters reports. Link
Sinotruk prepares European market entry with electric and diesel trucks. Link
US being left behind in EV charging speeds as China goes sub-5 min to 70%. Link
Click here to see Andy's full list of the latest articles and news.
Stellantis Patents System for EVs to Eject Their Own Battery Packs in Case of Danger. Link
[12 months earlier....] This Chinese EV's Fire Plan: Yeet The Entire Battery. Link
Scottish operator Lothian orders 50 DD e-buses from Volvo. Link
Flock Cameras Are Moving From Roads to Watching as Drones From the Sky. Link
Bill Gates says AI companies self-regulating isn’t enough and governments should be involved in monitoring. Link
Astronomer watches Starlink satellites sinking to build a ‘planetary barometer’. Link
AMD will acquire Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs for $8.2 billion. Link
Russia attacks scientists in strikes on Kyiv. Link
Andy's Video Pick of the Week
Here's a nice little refresher/lesson on Op Amps, including using op amps to amplify an analog signal for conversion by the Arduino's ADC, to build a dual power supply, and to build a light-activated switch.
A completely true story. An AI delivery bot hires a human delivery driver right in front of me.
Relive the tale with me here. - Cabe
From the Inventors Comics Collection
New in Electronic Design's Member Library
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Reading library book
open bookAbout the Author
William G. WongWilliam G. Wong
Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF
I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.
You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form.
Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.
You can visit my social media via these links:
- AltEmbedded on Electronic Design
- Bill Wong on Facebook
- @AltEmbedded on Twitter
- Bill Wong on LinkedIn
I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.
I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.
Roger Engelke Jr.Roger Engelke Jr.
Managing Editor - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF
Roger manages the websites and print issues for Electronic Design and Microwaves &RF.
Cabe AtwellCabe Atwell
Technology Editor, Electronic Design
Cabe is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design.
Engineer, Machinist, Cartoonist, Maker, Writer. A graduate Electrical Engineer actively plying his expertise in the industry and at his company, Gunhead. When not designing/building, he creates a steady torrent of projects and content in the media world. Many of his projects and articles are online at element14 & SolidSmack, industry-focused work at EETimes & EDN, and offbeat articles at Make Magazine. Currently, you can find him hosting webinars and contributing to Electronic Design and Machine Design.
Cabe is an electrical engineer, design consultant and author with 25 years’ experience. His most recent book is “Essential 555 IC: Design, Configure, and Create Clever Circuits”
Cabe writes the Engineering Life & Engineering on Friday blog on Electronic Design.
See Cabe's cartoons & comic strips here.
James MorraJames Morra
Senior Editor
James Morra is the senior editor for Electronic Design, covering the semiconductor industry and new technology trends, with a focus on power electronics and power management. He also reports on the business behind electrical engineering, including the electronics supply chain. He joined Electronic Design in 2015 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Andy TurudicAndy Turudic
Technology Editor, Electronic Design
Andy Turudic is a Technology Editor for Electronic Design Magazine, primarily covering Analog and Mixed-Signal circuits and devices and also is Editor of ED's bi-weekly Automotive Electronics newsletter.
He holds a Bachelor's in EE from the University of Windsor (Ontario Canada) and has been involved in electronics, semiconductors, and gearhead stuff, for a bit over a half century. Andy also enjoys teaching his engineerlings at Portland Community College as a part-time professor in their EET program.
"AndyT" brings his multidisciplinary engineering experience from companies that include National Semiconductor (now Texas Instruments), Altera (Intel), Agere, Zarlink, TriQuint,(now Qorvo), SW Bell (managing a research team at Bellcore, Bell Labs and Rockwell Science Center), Bell-Northern Research, and Northern Telecom.
After hours, when he's not working on the latest invention to add to his portfolio of 16 issued US patents, or on his DARPA Challenge drone entry, he's lending advice and experience to the electric vehicle conversion community from his mountain lair in the Pacific Northwet[sic].
AndyT's engineering blog, "Nonlinearities," publishes the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month. Andy's OpEd may appear at other times, with fair warning given by the Vu meter pic. His cartoon series, "Inventors", appears each week in Electronic Design Weekly.
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