In the current semiconductor market, 800V high-voltage New Energy Vehicles (xEV) and AI high-computing server power supplies (HVDC architecture) have become the primary growth drivers for power semiconductors.
Despite different application scenarios, both face the same core challenges in electrical characteristics: how to improve system energy efficiency, power density, and thermal management capabilities under conditions of higher voltage, greater power, and higher operating frequencies. Currently, Tier 1 manufacturers and data center power architects generally face hardware design pain points in system design, such as insufficient power density, thermal bottlenecks, and EMI interference, while also bearing the pressure of significantly shortened product R&D and verification cycles.
Against this backdrop, eefocus interviewed Liu Wenxin, Senior Manager of the Technology Department at Toshiba, during the 2026 Munich Shanghai Electronica China, to discuss the aforementioned industry issues.
Liu Wenxin told eefocus reporters that, in response to these core challenges, Toshiba Semiconductor (TOSHIBA, hereinafter referred to as Toshiba) is shifting its strategy from upgrading individual components to providing system-level solutions. The company is iterating its technology in two core sectors: power devices (MOSFET/SiC) and automotive high-speed communication, and has adopted a supply chain cooperation model of "wafer provision in Japan + packaging completion in China."
AI Data Center Power Supply Chain: Technological Evolution from High-Voltage AC-DC to POL Point-of-Load
Given the surge in power density of high-computing GPUs, the server rack power supply architecture is transitioning from the traditional 12V to 48V, or even High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC).
In this regard, Liu Wenxin pointed out that since low-voltage devices such as main controllers, sensors, and some control switches cannot be fully switched to high-voltage signal systems in the short term, the 12V architecture will not disappear quickly. The market will maintain a compatible architecture with 12V and 48V running in parallel for the next few years. To this end, Toshiba has carried out a full-chain product layout for different voltage nodes.
Source: Photographed by eefocus
At the high-voltage input end, Toshiba has launched SiC QDPAK discrete devices featuring a Top-side Cooling design, primarily targeting the Solid State Transformer (SST) and Solid State Circuit Breaker (SSCB/SSTB) markets.
The heat from traditional packaging is mainly conducted downward to the PCB, which easily causes board-level heat accumulation; whereas the QDPAK package can directly dissipate heat loss through the top heat sink. In 3kW-class AI server power supplies and communication power supplies, this technology helps reduce PCB area and lower system thermal resistance, assisting the system in achieving 80 PLUS Titanium/Platinum efficiency ratings. For example, its 1.6kW LLC AC-DC reference design achieves a measured conversion efficiency of 96.7% at 230V input and 100% load.
At the rack and board level, as the 48V architecture gradually scales up, the demand focus for some low-voltage MOSFETs below 65V is expected to shift towards 80V to 100V high-voltage-tolerance products, such as Toshiba's Gen.11 300mm process line products.
In addition to eFuses for 48V applications, targeting board-level Point-of-Load (POL), Toshiba has introduced low-voltage high-speed bus switches suitable for high-speed line switching between the CPU and PCIe ports. The technical specifications are compatible with future PCIe Gen5 to Gen6 standards, ensuring signal integrity during high-bandwidth data transmission.
Automotive Systems: Integration of Motor Control Chips and 10G Ethernet Backbone
As vehicle development and iteration cycles shorten to one year or even a few months, Tier 1 manufacturers are facing immense pressure on BOM costs and verification time. Toshiba's technological reserves in automotive motor control and Electrical/Electronic Architecture (EEA) mainly focus on three development directions: high voltage tolerance, high integration, and high bandwidth.
In terms of voltage tolerance, according to Toshiba engineers, automotive peripheral motors (such as sunroofs, water pumps, and EPS Electronic Power Steering) are shifting from 12V systems to 48V/96V high-voltage platforms. Past 12V systems used 40V voltage-tolerant devices, while future 48V systems require MOSFETs to reach 80V/100V voltage tolerance. For 96V automotive platforms, Toshiba is developing 150V next-generation high-voltage MOSFETs.
In terms of packaging support, Toshiba has integrated and optimized three Drain Pins into one (connected on the same line) in some products. This move can effectively reduce the parasitic resistance introduced from the package leadframe, providing more design margin and redundancy for Tier 1 circuit designs under extreme current-carrying conditions.
In terms of integration, taking the SmartMCD™ (TB9M003FG) reference model for automotive water pump control as an example, it integrates a Cortex-M0 core, LDO, LIN transceiver, and three-phase motor drive within a single chip. Compared to some solutions using Multi-Die wire bonding, the single-chip structure can significantly reduce internal chip thermal resistance and improve packaging reliability.
Source: Photographed by eefocus
Furthermore, to solve the computing power bottleneck when the low-cost M0 core performs sensorless vector control, the chip also embeds a dedicated motor control FOC hardware arithmetic circuit (dedicated ASIC IP). This circuit is responsible for processing complex control algorithms without occupying CPU computing power, enabling sinusoidal PWM drive under low power consumption.
In terms of high bandwidth, autonomous driving and multimedia data transmission pose higher requirements for the bandwidth of the in-vehicle backbone network. Toshiba's main promoted model, the TC9563 series automotive Ethernet bridging chip, supports up to dual-port 10Gbps bandwidth and integrates multiple PCIe switches. It is responsible for low-latency, high-speed conversion between the Ethernet protocol and PCIe protocol, supporting node connection for OEMs' next-generation centralized or zonal architectures.
Source: Photographed by eefocus
Supply Chain and Segmented Market Strategy: Capacity Expansion, Bare Die Cooperation, and Differentiated Competition
To cope with the growth in power semiconductor demand in the global and Chinese markets, Liu Wenxin revealed that Toshiba's Kaga plant in Japan commissioned a brand-new 12-inch (300mm) silicon-based power semiconductor production line in 2025. In 2026, this production line will be fully mass-produced, increasing Toshiba's overall capacity for silicon power semiconductors to 3.5 times that of 2021, to ensure the delivery stability of the global supply chain.
Facing the current situation of rising market share of domestic power semiconductor manufacturers in China, Toshiba has adopted a flexible cooperation model in its business mode. Toshiba can provide automotive-grade bare die wafers, which are handed over to domestic Chinese partners for back-end packaging, testing, and module assembly, jointly pushing the products into the xEV main drive inverter market (such as 1200V/750V reverse-conducting RC-IGBT and SiC MOSFET).
Liu Wenxin believes that this model can alleviate the capital investment pressure for Toshiba to build brand-new packaging production lines overseas, while also accelerating the response speed to local customers.
Source: Photographed by eefocus
In addition, at the Toshiba booth, reporters also saw the SCiB lithium titanate battery solution. According to Toshiba engineers, due to the low volumetric energy density of SCiB lithium titanate batteries, their application in the passenger vehicle market, which pursues long driving ranges, is somewhat limited. However, based on physical characteristics such as "extremely high safety (not easy to precipitate lithium causing internal short circuits), 3-minute fast charge and discharge, and an ultra-long cycle life 2-3 times that of traditional lithium batteries," Toshiba is focusing in the Chinese market on shifting to certain segmented fields for differentiated competition:
- In high-speed rail and industrial mobile applications: Utilizing its high safety and wide-temperature charge/discharge characteristics, SCiB has been successfully applied to the emergency traction systems of smart high-speed trains. In the field of industrial logistics robots (AGV), utilizing the fast-charge characteristic, when the robot detects that the battery level is below 2%, it can be fast-charged with high current at the charging station. It can be recharged to 60% within 3 minutes and put back into operation, eliminating the purchase cost of backup vehicles for factories due to excessively long charging times.
- In data center and grid fluctuation scenarios: Under sudden power outage conditions, the lithium titanate battery supports an ultra-high discharge rate of 50C to 100C. It can be paired with supercapacitors to instantly start diesel generators within 3 to 10 seconds, which is suitable for emergency voltage regulation and power backup in industrial and high-density server racks.
Conclusion
In response to the shortened R&D cycles of Tier 1 manufacturers, Toshiba's Reference Design Center has opened Turnkey development support to designers. The official website has published general circuit schematics, PCB pad data, Gerber processing data, and sample software, and provides advanced system-level simulation models compatible with PSpice and LTspice. This facilitates engineers in conducting Power Delivery Network (PDN) and EMC simulations, reducing testing and trial-and-error costs in the early stages of R&D.
Meanwhile, Toshiba revealed that, given the rising popularity of the embodied AI and industrial robot markets, Toshiba is accelerating the allocation of R&D resources. In addition to current automotive and server power supplies, Toshiba's existing robot joint and dexterous hand motor drive chip technology will become the focus of product promotion in the next stage.