News: Microelectronics
17 February 2022
GaN power IC firm Navitas doubles revenue in 2021
For fourth-quarter 2021, gallium nitride (GaN) power integrated circuit firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of El Segundo, CA, USA and Dublin, Ireland has reported revenue of $7.3m, up 30% on $5.6m last quarter and 55% on $4.7m a year ago. Full-year revenue doubled from $11.8m in 2020 to $23.7m in 2021.
Founded in 2014, Navitas introduced what it claimed to be the first commercial GaN power integrated circuits. Its proprietary GaNFast power ICs monolithically integrate GaN power field-effect transistors (FETs) and GaN drive plus control and protection circuits in a single SMT package to enable faster charging, higher power density and greater energy savings for mobile, consumer, enterprise, eMobility and new energy markets.
“2021 was a pivotal year for Navitas as we doubled revenue and became a public company,” says co-founder & CEO Gene Sheridan. “We have strengthened our leadership position in the mobile market, with all of the top mobile players shipping or developing their next-gen chargers with Navitas,” he adds.
In mobile fast chargers, the number of customer designs released to production increased by 75% to over 170 by the end of 2021, with an increase of over 100% in the number of customer designs in development, now at over 240 projects. Tier-1 ‘in-box’ wins have doubled, which include Dell, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Vivo, Motorola and LG among others. At year end, over 35 million GaN ICs had shipped with zero reported GaN field failures.
GaNFast power ICs with new GaNSense technology are in production with Lenovo, Xiaomi and Vivo, and Navitas now has 145 patents issued or pending.
On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was 44.3% in Q4/2021, up on 37.7% a year earlier. Full-year gross margin rose from 33.2% to 45.4%.
However, operating expenses have risen from $8.1m a year ago to $10.1m, and full-year operating expenses from $21.6m in 2020 to $35.3m for 2021.
Quarterly net loss has risen further, from $6.37m ($0.39 per share) a year ago to $6.95m ($0.07 per share). Full-year net loss has hence risen from $17.8m ($1.10 per share) in 2020 to $24.8m ($0.63 per share) in 2021.
“Our expansion plans into data-center, solar and EV are well underway with sampling of our high-power GaN ICs and the opening of our new design centers dedicated to data-centers and EV applications,” says Sheridan.
Navitas expects revenue to fall back slightly to $6-7m in first-quarter 2022, but full-year 2022 revenue should still double to about $48m. Gross margin should be 44% for both the quarter and the full year. Operating expenses are expected to be rise to $13m for Q1 and $58m for full-year 2022 (which includes a full year of expenses associated with being a public company).
Navitas opens first GaN IC design center for EVs
Navitas GaN ICs upgraded from 650V to 700V for continuous operation
Navitas samples GaN power ICs for data-center, solar and EV customers
Navitas opens design center in China focused on enabling GaN-based data-centers
GaN power IC firm Navitas doubles sales volume year-on-year in Q3
Navitas begins trading on Nasdaq as NVTS debuts after seven years as start-up
