STMicro Advanced GaN Capabilities Showcased at APEC 2026

The company’s rugged, cool-running, industrial-grade 240-W LED driver put the spotlight on its integrated GaN devices and high-end packaging technologies.
April 27, 2026
2 min read

What you'll learn:

  • STMicroelectronics leverages its expertise in integrated GaN devices and advanced packaging to bring the benefits of wide-bandgap technologies to high-volume consumer and industrial power applications.
  • A reference design for a rugged, cool-running 240-W LED driver features the company's MASTERGAN advanced power system-in-package solution.
  • The driver’s switch-mode controller integrates a gate driver with two enhancement-mode 600-V GaN HEMTs arranged in a half-bridge configuration.

At the recent APEC 2026, STMicroelectronics presented many examples of cost-effective, cool-running, multichip power products that arose from the deep investments in advanced packaging and wide-bandgap technologies. One such example was a reference design for a 240-W LED driver based on the company's MASTERGAN advanced power system-in-package solution. The solution integrates a gate driver with two enhancement-mode 600-V gallium-nitride (GaN) HEMTs arranged in a half-bridge configuration.

STMicroelectronics’ Rosario Attanasio shares some of the architectural features of the company’s reference design for a  240-W LED driver based on the company’s MASTERGAN technology.

During our chat, STMicro’s Rosario Attanasio explained that the driver reference design uses a STCH03 switch-mode current controller that co-packages a high-performance, low-voltage PWM controller chip and a 650-V high-voltage startup cell, as well as its GAN-based L4985 CCM PFC controller.

The higher operating frequencies and efficiencies reduce the size of the passive elements required. The devices operate across an industrial-grade temperature range with virtually no heatsink other than the environmentally resistant housing it’s packaged in for outdoor applications.

The LED driver was only one of several applications on display, which featured highly integrated GaN- and SiC-based power solutions for high-volume consumer and industrial applications. This included a hybrid SiC/GaN traction inverter based on the company’s STGAP4BH hybrid switch driver, and a 7-kW dual-active bridge AC-DC onboard charger based on its monolithic 700-V GaN bidirectional switches.

>>Check out more of our APEC 2026 coverage

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Stay on top of the technologies and trends in focus at APEC 2026 and hear from industry insiders on the state of the power electronics industry.

About the Author

Lee Goldberg

Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series

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