Navitas & Virtual Forest Join Hands to Advance Net-Zero in Agriculture

By: Navitas Semiconductor Corporation via GlobeNewswire

April 18, 2024 at 08:30 AM EDT

TORRANCE, Calif. and BENGALURU, India, April 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Navitas Semiconductor, the only pure-play, next-generation power semiconductor company and industry leader in GaN power ICs and SiC technology, today announced that Virtual Forest, one of India’s leading electronics design companies specializing in motor control and human interface technologies for consumer appliances, fluid movement and mobility, has adopted its GaNFast™ power integrated circuits (IC) technology for a zero-emission, powerful 3 hp (2,250W) solar-powered irrigation pump.

For many farmers worldwide, irrigating remote crops requires powerful pumps to lift water from rivers and streams up to field-level, with the majority powered by polluting and noisy diesel generators or expensive, lossy long-distance electrical cables. The Virtual Forest solar pump with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) operates in conjunction with solar panel and energy storage to provide robust, energy-independent, and pollution-free performance at the point of use. The 3 hp (2,250W) pump is remotely accessed via quad-band IoT with low power consumption. It can raise over 50 gallons-per-minute of water to a height of over 90 feet, enough to water 3 acres of farmland, and help to produce 10 tonnes of wheat. Further, the IoT enabled solar pump ensures optimal water usage through intelligent analytics, therefore minimizing ground water utilization.

Navitas GaNSense™ half-bridge power ICs monolithically by integrating two GaN power FETs with GaN drivers, level-shifters, protection features and high-efficiency loss-less current sensing. High-efficiency NV6269 half-bridge ICs, in easy-to-use 8x10 mm QFN packages are used in a 3-phase motor inverter, with 3x-5x energy savings vs legacy silicon IGBTs.

"The $450 million solar-pump market in India is expected to reach $1.5 Bn by 2026, calling for a solar revolution on Indian fields¹,” said Virtual Forest’s CEO, Omer Basith, adding “Reliable, off-grid systems are critical to overcome food insecurity and achieve energy efficiency. Leveraging Navitas’ high-power, efficient GaNSense™ half-bridge, we seek to deliver a robust solution to the market. We are nurturing our dream to drive gigatons of reduction in carbon emissions, thereby making the world a greener place to live in. Hence, our name — Virtual Forest.”

“The design team at Virtual Forest adopted the GaNSense half-bridges very quickly, for a fast time-to-market,” said Alessandro Squeri, Navitas’ Senior Sales Director. “With GaNSense 'easy-to-use' features, Virtual Forest comes into the partnership with high efficiency, low component count and a robust design for tough environments.”

About Virtual Forest

As India’s leading experts in Motor Control Electronics & Human Interface Technologies, we are powering the Home Appliance and EV ecosystems through our integrated partner platform, which includes state-of-art in-house R&D (for design, testing & integration), world-class manufacturers (EMS partners), as well as leading global distributors of semiconductors, PCBs and electronic components. For more details, please visit www virtual forest.in.

We are passionate entrepreneurs – nurturing the dream to drive gigaton reductions in carbon emissions, while also creating significant stakeholder value as a business enterprise. We give our customers a unique design and manufacturing experience, by hand holding them in the absence of design requirements as well as in-house domain expertise and help them walk the journey from R&D all the way to mass manufacturing. We offer these services as part of our Virtual Lab & Virtual Factory offerings.

About Navitas

Navitas Semiconductor (Nasdaq: NVTS) is the only pure-play, next-generation power-semiconductor company, celebrating 10 years of power innovation founded in 2024. GaNFast™ power ICs integrate gallium nitride (GaN) power and drive, with control, sensing, and protection to enable faster charging, higher power density, and greater energy savings. Complementary GeneSiC™ power devices are optimized high-power, high-voltage, and high-reliability silicon carbide (SiC) solutions. Focus markets include EV, solar, energy storage, home appliance / industrial, data center, mobile and consumer. Over 250 Navitas patents are issued or pending. As of August 2023, over 125 million GaN and 12 million SiC units have been shipped, and with the industry’s first and only 20-year GaNFast warranty. Navitas was the world’s first semiconductor company to be CarbonNeutral®-certified.

Navitas Semiconductor, GaNFast, GaNSense, GeneSiC and the Navitas logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Navitas Semiconductor Limited and affiliates. All other brands, product names and marks are or may be trademarks or registered trademarks used to identify products or services of their respective owners.

Contact:

Kaushik Kashyap, Head of South India, On Purpose, for Virtual Forest

kaushik@onpurposeconsulting.in

Stephen Oliver, VP Corporate Marketing & Investor Relations for Navitas

ir@navitassemi.com

¹https://agritimes.co.in/amp/policy-research/solar-pump-market-in-india-bright-prospects-and-government-initiatives/#

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d8ae65f2-e78d-4cad-b373-b69e7d32a132