Nexperia B.V. and Aurobay Technologies a powertrain division under Horse Powertrain Ltd (a Renault Group and Geely joint venture) are exploring a strategic co-engineering partnership. The initiative pairs Nexperia’s gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductor fabrication with Aurobay’s automotive powertrain system architecture to advance next-generation hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) platforms.
Core Collaboration Highlights
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Joint Engineering Scope: Early-stage co-design and system-level optimization spanning automotive traction inverters and modular power generation units.
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Material Focus: Wide-bandgap (WBG) compounds—specifically GaN and SiC—designed to surpass traditional silicon in thermal performance, switching speeds, and power density.
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Manufacturing Footprint: Supported by Nexperia’s high-volume European front-end wafer fabs in Hamburg, Germany, and Manchester, UK.
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Proven Foundation: Follows the successful deployment of Nexperia GaN devices within Aurobay’s integrated range-extender power generation setup, which reduced component weight and footprint.
Modern electrified propulsion systems must balance stringent thermal constraints with rising electrical power demands. Wide-bandgap devices address this bottleneck by minimizing switching losses, enabling smaller cooling hardware, and supporting compact packaging.
These power electronics also provide the stable electrical backbone required by increasingly computerized vehicle architectures. Next-generation EVs rely on artificial intelligence algorithms for predictive energy optimization, real-time battery thermal modeling, and autonomous driving functions. Operating these data-intensive sub-systems requires rapid transient power delivery without voltage sags, making high-speed wide-bandgap switches an essential enabler of intelligent vehicular controls.
“GaN and SiC technologies offer significant opportunities to improve efficiency, power density and system performance in automotive applications. By working closely with Aurobay Technologies, we can better understand system-level requirements and evaluate how advanced semiconductor technologies can deliver measurable benefits at the vehicle level,” said, Edoardo Merli, Head of Business Group Wide-Bandgap, IGBTs and Modules at Nexperia
“Our experience integrating Nexperia’s GaN technology into a highly integrated power generation system demonstrated the potential of close collaboration across the value chain. By combining our expertise in powertrain systems with Nexperia’s semiconductor innovation, we can evaluate new approaches to improving efficiency, performance and packaging for future electrified propulsion systems,” said, Dr. Ma Yongquan, Chief Engineer, Advanced Engineering on Electrical Components at Aurobay.
Nexperia and Aurobay will continue technical feasibility assessments and joint system simulations, focusing on accelerating the timeline from raw WBG semiconductor development to validated automotive powertrain integration.
