[News] GaN Patent Battle Heats Up: Navitas Sues Renesas After Trade-Secret Claims

Competition in the compound semiconductor market is heating up, with the battle now extending to patents. According to Reuters, chipmaker Navitas has sued Japan-based rival Renesas in Texas federal court for allegedly infringing patents related to next-generation chip technologies. Navitas claims that Renesas’ gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors infringe four of its GaN patents.

As noted by ICsmart, Navitas’ lawsuit (Case No. 2:26-cv-00676) alleges that Renesas’ major GaN product lines, including SuperGaN power semiconductors, infringe four U.S. patents covering power conversion and energy-efficiency technologies: US 9,929,079, US 11,545,838, US 11,770,010, and US 11,862,996.

Navitas CEO Christopher Allexandre said the company was an early GaN innovator and helped bring the technology into large-scale applications. ICsmart adds that Navitas claims to hold more than 300 granted and pending patents globally, while growing demand for high-power AI infrastructure products supported strong 2Q26 results, with growth expected to accelerate in 3Q26.

Navitas-Renesas Patent Battle Traces Back to Executive Moves

Navitas’ lawsuit is widely seen as a response to Renesas’ July 2026 trade-secret case. According to ICsmart, the dispute dates back to September 2025, when Navitas appointed Christopher Allexandre, then senior vice president and general manager of Renesas’ Power division, as CEO. Another Renesas executive, Felicia Cheng, also joined Navitas around the same time.

On July 22, Renesas sued Navitas in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Allexandre and Cheng brought confidential materials covering product specifications, technology roadmaps, and market-timing plans for next-generation GaN chips targeting AI data centers. Renesas further alleged that Navitas’ s 2.0 strategy closely mirrored those plans in its target customers, technology direction, and market opportunities.

GaN Patent Battles Heat Up as AI Demand Grows

Navitas is also fighting a separate patent battle. ICsmart notes that SiC leader Wolfspeed sued the company in U.S. federal court in early July, alleging that its GaN and SiC products infringe multiple patents. The disputes come as GaN becomes increasingly important to AI infrastructure. ICsmart highlights that the shift toward 800V AI data center architectures is opening a key market for GaN, which offers roughly 10× higher switching frequencies and 30% lower energy consumption than silicon-based IGBTs (Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors).

Read more

• [News] Wolfspeed Sues Navitas Over GaN, SiC Patents, Reportedly Seeks U.S. Sales Ban
• [News] Infineon Found to Infringe Innoscience GaN Patent, Barred from Selling Certain Products in China

(Photo credit: Navitas)