On July 23, 2026, Navitas Semiconductor of the U.S. and Magnachip Semiconductor of Korea announced a partnership in high-voltage and ultra-high-voltage silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors. Magnachip will license Navitas's fourth- and fifth-generation GeneSiC technology and use it to develop products at 1200V, 2300V, and 3300V and above. The plan is to transfer the technology to a fab in Korea, qualify it there, and bring manufacturing in-house.
Magnachip's product lineup already includes 650V and 1200V SiC MOSFETs. Even so, this agreement was necessary because the company disclosed, as of the end of 2025, that it lacked in-house SiC manufacturing capability and had to rely on outsourcing. The core of the announcement is not the first entry into SiC products. Rather, it is an effort to extend voltage ratings from the existing 1200V up to 2300V and 3300V-plus, while bringing the manufacturing process itself into Korea.
At the Center of the License: Process Transfer to a Korean Fab
The subject of the agreement is Trench-Assisted Planar (TAP) technology, which Navitas offers under the GeneSiC brand. According to the joint announcement, in addition to device technology, Magnachip will gain access to the SiC supply chain and materials procurement base that Navitas has built. The two companies explain that support extending even to materials procurement is intended to shorten the lead time to market entry.
The companies described the work ahead in three stages: "transfer," "qualification," and "in-house production." This breakdown indicates that a verification process lies between signing the agreement and the start of shipments. Even with the license agreement in place, Magnachip-made GeneSiC will not ship immediately. First comes the work of adapting the process to the fab's equipment, confirming electrical characteristics and reliability, and finalizing mass-production conditions.
The joint announcement does not name the fab to which the technology will be transferred. According to Magnachip's 2025 Form 10-K, the company's manufacturing base is a single fab in Gumi, Korea, with a monthly capacity of about 36,000 8-inch-equivalent wafers. The company invested $21.4 million in 2025 to upgrade the Gumi fab, but there is no statement linking this investment to the current SiC transfer.
The contract value, term, royalties, and exclusivity have not been disclosed. The companies say they will also cooperate beyond SiC, but the scope of that cooperation will be announced later. What is confirmed at this point is the framework for technology transfer—not a mass-production contract or customer orders.
What Distinguishes This Agreement From Existing 1200V Products
Placing Magnachip's public catalog alongside this agreement makes the point of change clear.
| As of | SiC Voltage Range | Manufacturing Status |
|---|---|---|
| Product catalog before the agreement | 650V, 1200V | No in-house SiC manufacturing capability as of end of 2025 |
| Current GeneSiC license | 1200V, 2300V, 3300V and above | Plan to transfer to a Korean fab and bring in-house after qualification |
In other words, Magnachip is moving from a stage of handling finished SiC products to a stage of bringing the process itself into its own fab. Because it has not been disclosed whose process the current 650V and 1200V products are manufactured on, the relationship between the existing lineup and GeneSiC cannot be assumed to be the same.
In 2025, the company exited the display business and transitioned into a pure-play power semiconductor company focused on Power Analog Solutions and Power IC. Its traditional product range has centered on silicon super-junction MOSFETs at 500V to 900V and IGBTs at 650V and 1200V. If it can manufacture GeneSiC in-house, the company could extend its product range to the 2300V and 3300V class for power grid and energy storage applications while leveraging its existing design and sales infrastructure.
That said, the economics of in-house production cannot yet be calculated. The SiC wafer diameter and additional equipment required remain unknown. Monthly production capacity, yield, and the timeline for completing qualification have not been disclosed either. That the agreement has opened a technical gateway is one thing; whether mass production at a competitive cost is achievable is another matter that still needs to be verified.
What 1.2kV, 2.3kV, and 3.3kV Bring to Power Conversion
The technologies licensed together this time do not share the same generation or voltage. Fifth-generation GeneSiC is a 1.2kV (1200V) TAP MOSFET, while the fourth generation covers the ultra-high-voltage products at 2.3kV (2300V) and 3.3kV (3300V). Navitas states that its fifth generation improves the RDS(ON) × QGD performance metric by 35% over its previous-generation 1200V technology, and improves the QGD/QGS ratio by roughly 25% as well. It says the gate threshold voltage is maintained at 3V or higher. These figures are based on Navitas's own testing.
RDS(ON) relates to conduction losses, while QGD relates to the burden of switching. Reducing the product of the two makes it easier to suppress both heat generation under high current and switching losses during fast switching simultaneously. TAP retains a planar gate while adding a shallow trench to the source region. Navitas explains that a standard trench gate requires roughly 40% more process steps than a planar gate, and that TAP is designed to balance current flow and electric field distribution while preserving manufacturability.
The role of the 2300V and 3300V class is to reduce the number of series-connected components and simplify circuits in converters that handle voltages close to those found on the power grid. U.S. national laboratories cite applications for medium-voltage SiC power electronics including connections to 15kV-class distribution grids, solid-state transformers (SST), and interfacing solar, batteries, and EVs with DC systems. Traditionally, voltage was stepped down using large line-frequency transformers before semiconductor conversion; high-voltage SiC enables configurations that switch directly at the medium-voltage level.
However, a single 3300V device does not by itself handle 13.8kV or 34.5kV. Even the SST configurations shown by Navitas employ a modular structure connecting inputs in series and outputs in parallel. While a higher device voltage rating reduces the number of series stages needed, the overall efficiency and compactness of the equipment are determined by the circuit topology and implementation.
At the 3.3kV Class, Packaging and Insulation Come to the Fore
At 3.3kV and above, confirming the operation of the device alone is not enough to determine the long-term reliability of a power conversion system. A peer-reviewed review compiled by national laboratories and others identifies control of parasitic elements and electromagnetic interference (EMI) as common challenges for SiC modules ranging from 3.3kV to 40kV. Partial discharge and thermal management also remain issues. The faster the voltage and current are switched, the more the wiring and insulation materials themselves must be designed as part of the electrical circuit.
What is being licensed this time is the GeneSiC device platform itself. The joint announcement does not indicate what packaging or modules Magnachip will use to offer the 2300V and 3300V products. Automotive applications will require automotive qualification, while grid applications will require insulation and lifetime evaluation suited to high-voltage environments. The list of applications is broad, spanning AI data centers and energy storage to automotive and industrial electrification. There is no guarantee that the same product can be deployed unchanged across every market.
When qualification results are announced, the first things to check will be voltage rating and on-resistance. High-temperature operation, dynamic switching, partial discharge, and package thermal resistance will also serve as evaluation criteria. Customer design adoption will follow after that. The verification process that begins with this agreement extends to both the manufacturing process and the packaging/implementation.
Where a Fabless Company and an IDM's Business Transformation Intersect
Navitas does not own a fab and currently outsources manufacturing of its SiC products to X-Fab in the United States. In the latter half of 2025, it launched "Navitas 2.0," scaling back its mobile and consumer business while shifting R&D and products toward AI data centers, power grids, high-performance computing, and industrial electrification. For Navitas, which holds high-voltage SiC intellectual property and a supply chain, an agreement that leverages Magnachip's manufacturing and sales infrastructure is a means of expanding GeneSiC's reach.
Magnachip brings a power semiconductor fab it has operated for many years along with an established customer base. On the other hand, its 2025 year-end 10-K explicitly identified the lack of in-house SiC manufacturing as a weakness. This is a combination in which Navitas provides the process and supply chain, and Magnachip provides the fab and customer network. That said, the joint announcement does not clarify how supply responsibilities will be divided or which party will act as the seller of the products.
This partnership can be evaluated as having established a mass-production framework only once Magnachip discloses the fab to which the technology has been transferred and the timeline for completing qualification. Post-qualification capacity and yield will also be essential. Furthermore, if product part numbers, adopting customers, and either license revenue or manufacturing sales are disclosed, it will become possible to judge whether the technology agreement has translated into an actual business.