Visteon, SHINRY and Infineon develop single-stage GaN OBC

Visteon Corporation and SHINRY Technologies, through their joint venture Visteon-Shinry Power Electronics (VSPE), have partnered with Infineon Technologies to develop a highly advanced single-stage onboard charger (OBC) for electric vehicles. Unveiled at the electronica 2026 trade fair in Munich, Germany, the new solution merges VSPE’s proprietary converter hardware topology and control algorithms with Infineon’s gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic bidirectional switches (BDS). The collaboration aims to significantly enhance power density, system efficiency, and vehicle reliability while reducing overall manufacturing complexity and costs compared to traditional charging architectures.

Eliminating bulk capacitors for compact V2X charging
Traditional OBCs typically require a two-stage power conversion process that relies heavily on large, failure-prone bulk capacitors. VSPE’s innovative single-stage architecture entirely eliminates these components, paving the way for significantly more compact packaging and higher long-term reliability. The resulting OBC supports robust 22 kW three-phase and 19.2 kW single-phase AC charging profiles. Furthermore, the system offers full vehicle-to-everything (V2X) bidirectional capabilities, enabling grid interaction and versatile energy management for the end user.

According to Infineon, integrating their award-winning GaN BDS technology is critical to realizing this architecture. The monolithic devices merge bidirectional voltage blocking and current conduction into a single semiconductor component, drastically simplifying the power stage while utilizing GaN's high-frequency switching capabilities to shrink the size of internal magnetic components.

Additional Context: Single-stage AC/DC conversion and GaN Bidirectional Switches
This section details the physical principles of single-stage matrix topologies and GaN semiconductor physics not included in the original press release.

In conventional electric vehicle Onboard Chargers (OBCs), power conversion is a two-stage process. First, an AC-DC Power Factor Correction (PFC) stage rectifies the grid's alternating current into a high-voltage direct current. Next, an isolated DC-DC converter regulates this voltage to match the EV battery's exact state of charge. Between these two stages sits the "DC-link"—a massive bank of electrolytic bulk capacitors used to smooth out the 100/120 Hz power ripple. These capacitors are heavy, take up significant physical volume, and are highly sensitive to thermal stress, often making them the primary failure point in automotive power electronics over a vehicle's lifespan.

A single-stage matrix converter topology bypasses this entirely, converting grid AC directly to battery DC in one highly controlled step, permanently eliminating the DC-link bulk capacitors. However, switching alternating current directly requires devices capable of blocking voltage and conducting current in both directions. Historically, engineers had to wire two traditional silicon IGBTs or MOSFETs back-to-back in series to create a bidirectional switch, which doubled the component count and heavily increased conduction (heat) losses.

Infineon’s monolithic Gallium Nitride (GaN) Bidirectional Switch (BDS) solves this bottleneck at the fundamental semiconductor level. Because GaN operates as a lateral High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT)—where current flows across the surface of the chip rather than vertically through it—engineers can fabricate a true bidirectional switch on a single silicon substrate with dual gate controls. This halves the required semiconductor footprint, drastically cuts conduction losses, and allows for the extreme high-frequency switching needed to miniaturize the system's heavy copper and magnetic inductors.

Edited by an industrial journalist, Lekshman Ramdas, with AI assistance.

www.infineon.com