Enphase Energy, best known as a maker of residential solar microinverters, is moving into AI data center power infrastructure with a new solid-state transformer designed to convert medium-voltage AC to regulated DC power for high-density computing facilities.
The AI data center industry is moving toward higher-voltage direct current architectures, including 800 VDC and ±400 VDC, to support rapidly rising rack power densities.
Rather than using a small number of large power blocks, the IQ SST uses a distributed supercluster of 342 smaller power modules operating as one coordinated system.
Enphase Energy said this modular approach is designed to enable lower-voltage, high-frequency switching and is intended to support fast response to dynamic AI loads, alongside module-level hot-swap serviceability.
The system relies on Kestrel, Enphase Energy's custom control application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), for predictive control, alongside gallium nitride (GaN)-based switching and a proprietary high-frequency transformer. In supported configurations, Enphase said the architecture may reduce or eliminate the need for sidecar power racks.
“Enphase's core architectural choice is to use many smaller power modules rather than fewer large ones,” said Raghu Belur, co-founder and chief product officer at Enphase Energy. “That design choice is central to IQ SST's intended performance, redundancy, serviceability, and manufacturability.”
Enphase Energy said the IQ SST draws on two decades of distributed power electronics experience. It said it has shipped approximately 87.8 million microinverters across more than 5.2 million systems in more than 165 countries.
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