Summary
- The 480 × 125mm reference board supports ±400V and 800V evaluation, with up to 12kW output.
- It incorporates hot-swap protection, conversion stages and PSOC-based telemetry management.
- Commercial evaluation-board availability is planned for November 2026; deployed production racks are not identified.
Infineon Technologies has introduced a high-voltage power distribution reference board for evaluating ±400V and 800V architectures in next-generation AI server racks. The engineering platform integrates electrical protection, intermediate bus conversion, regulated power stages and telemetry into a 480 × 125mm board.
The company said on 27 October that the platform supports output power of up to 12kW and will be available in November 2026. It is intended to help equipment designers assess electrical architectures and operating behaviour, not to indicate that a data-centre operator has already commissioned a rack using the board.
Higher-voltage distribution is being explored as rack power requirements increase. A distribution system that carries the same power at higher voltage can reduce the current in a conductor, although the overall implications depend on the architecture, insulation requirements and equipment configuration. The change creates new protection and conversion challenges that must be resolved before deployment.
Conversion and protective functions
Infineon’s board can evaluate ±400V and 800V input arrangements. The product includes input fuses, a dual hot-swap module, electromagnetic interference filtering and intermediate bus converters. Two 6kW high-voltage converter modules step ±400V down to 50V, while regulated stages provide conversion from 48V to 12V.
The supplier also specifies a dual hot-swap module supporting up to 32kW, providing controlled start-up, fault isolation, system protection and telemetry. That module rating is not the same as the reference board’s stated maximum output of 12kW, and the two specifications should not be conflated.
Hot-swap circuitry manages the electrical stresses that can arise when equipment is connected or disconnected under controlled conditions. At higher DC voltages, fault interruption and stored energy require particular attention because the absence of alternating-current zero crossings changes the protection problem.
Practical fault behaviour depends on the protection coordination among fuses, semiconductor switches, converters and upstream distribution. A reference design can help test how the chain responds, but the appropriate equipment settings and safety case still depend on the final rack and facility design.
Infineon reports that the board’s gallium nitride-based high-voltage intermediate converters achieve peak efficiency of up to 98.5%. This describes those conversion modules at their peak efficiency point, not the complete board under every load, still less the efficiency of an entire data-centre electrical system.
Downstream regulated stages, interconnections, filtering and protection also contribute losses. Equipment designers must examine part-load performance, thermal gradients, transient loads and behaviour under faults rather than extrapolating one maximum efficiency number into annual site energy savings.
Telemetry and design evaluation
A PSOC 3-based microcontroller board manager handles monitoring and telemetry, while PMBus connectivity supports communication with other power-management equipment. Such interfaces can expose voltages, currents, temperatures and status signals needed to assess the distribution chain during testing.
Measurements are especially useful when AI accelerators change power demand rapidly. Converter controls, bus capacitance and protective equipment must respond without allowing unacceptable voltage deviations or nuisance trips. The evaluation board provides a means of studying those behaviours at defined electrical stages.
Infineon says the platform can operate as a complete power chain or allow individual stages to be evaluated separately. It also supports alternative converter modules and filtering arrangements with compatible mechanical formats. This permits system engineers to compare architectures without treating the initial configuration as a fixed commercial rack specification.
Standard half-brick and quarter-brick module formats can make engineering comparisons easier, but a shared pin configuration does not guarantee identical electrical or thermal behaviour. Designers must review ratings, firmware, start-up sequencing, fault protection and heat dissipation before substituting components in a production design.
The reference design combines silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride device technologies in one electrical system. This is a design consideration rather than a claim that every component needs the same semiconductor material. Each conversion and protection function can be optimised against its own operating conditions.
Higher-voltage distribution decisions affect server and facility interfaces, not just the design of a standalone board. Designers must consider cabling, conversion stages, fault isolation, protective coordination and cooling alongside the voltage and current delivered to each accelerator.
Infineon expects the evaluation board to be available in November 2026. It has not identified a commissioned European data-centre deployment or independent system-level energy savings associated with the design. The board’s immediate use is laboratory and system-level testing of higher-voltage protection, conversion and telemetry before suppliers commit to commercial rack hardware.
