Data Center Critical Power Efficiency Needs

The rise of AI is making data center compute a high-value, energy-intensive resource. Product teams must deliver efficiency, density, and reliability while managing bursty demand and accounting for infrastructure, regulatory, and political constraints. Achieving this balance requires innovations in fast, efficient power conversion and tiered, hardware-timed supervision to protect both critical low-voltage rails and system-level auxiliary rails.

Modern data centers, especially those focused on AI, are increasingly designed around power density and total energy capacity rather than just the number of servers. Where servers used to be the main unit of planning, modern data centers are now organized around megawatts of power and cooling, sized for entire rows or pods of racks rather than individual machines.

AI‑optimized racks often draw 30 kW or more, several times the 5-15 kW typical for traditional server racks, putting a single rack’s peak draw on par with a small residential neighborhood. Operating in this environment requires applications that are capable of managing tightly provisioned power while keeping systems stable during sudden surges. Components from Texas Instruments demonstrate how modern designs can meet these new power and reliability requirements.

Anticipating constraints

The shift means designers can no longer assume that features will scale automatically. Every interaction, computation, or data-intensive experience now has a tangible impact on the underlying systems. Features that trigger large, sudden workloads can introduce latency, cause throttling, or require scaling trade-offs elsewhere in the system.

The most effective designs anticipate constraints rather than ignore them, delivering value while staying responsive under pressure and making every bit of compute count. Designers must weigh trade-offs between speed, functionality, and efficiency, balancing user experience with the physical limitations of compute and energy.

Building efficiency, precision, and resilience into the hardware is key to designing data center applications that deliver value without overloading systems. Applications must remain responsive under pressure and make every watt of compute count. That starts with components that manage power, monitor voltage, and safeguard performance under sudden surges.

The following illustrates how TI's components can bolster those applications.

The conversion layer

Gallium Nitride (GaN) power technology is increasingly integral to optimizing data center efficiency. AI servers powered by NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) consume large amounts of power that must be stepped down rapidly and precisely. The integration of a high-speed gate driver with a GaN field-effect transistor (FET) enables higher switching frequencies and reduced switching losses compared to conventional silicon solutions. This improves power conversion efficiency at both the board and rack levels, resulting in less energy lost to heat, reduced cooling demand, and more compact power delivery circuits. Data centers benefit from higher compute density and better overall energy performance.

The TI LMG3100R017VBER (Figure 1) is a 100 V GaN FET with an integrated high-frequency gate driver in a compact package. It combines the GaN FET and driver, including an internal high-side level shifter and bootstrap circuit, allowing two devices to form a half-bridge without requiring an external level shifter.

Figure 1: The LMG3100R017VBER is a 100 V 1.7 mΩ GaN FET with integrated gate driver. (Image source: Texas Instruments)

System oversight

GaN devices switch extremely fast and operate at high voltages. Rapid, large fluctuations common in high-density data center servers can cause voltage drops or spikes, leading to erratic operation, increased stress on GPUs and other components, and potential downtime. Without proper monitoring, a GaN FET power stage could try to switch when the voltage is outside the safe range.

While critical high-voltage rails need fast-acting supervision, auxiliary rails require broader monitoring and sequencing of power system logic, I/O, and cooling circuits to maintain overall system stability.

TI’s line of TPS3760 supervisor ICs (Figure 2) monitors a single higher-voltage rail with a hardware-timed response and minimal overhead. While the manufacturer offers models for automotive applications, designers targeting data center applications can select standard commercial versions like the TPS3760A015DYYR. These devices use precision internal voltage comparators to continuously check the rail voltage against a defined threshold, asserting a reset signal if voltage falls out of range.

Figure 2: TPS3760 devices are 65 V overvoltage/undervoltage supervisors with sense input, ultra-low quiescent current, and programmable delay. (Image source: Texas Instruments)

TI's TPS389006 family provides fast, precise supervision of low-voltage rails that power GPUs, CPUs, and memory. The TPS389006007RTER devices (Figure 3) , for example, monitor these rails in real time and assert reset signals immediately when voltage deviates from tight tolerances. Positioned close to the point of load, they protect sensitive, high-current devices from transient faults and ensure stable operation during rapid load changes.

Figure 3: TPS389600 components like the TPS389006007RTER provide high-accuracy, multichannel voltage supervision for systems that operate on low-voltage supply rails and have narrow margin supply tolerances. (Image source: Texas Instruments)

The two types of supervisor ICs complement GaN FETs by combining system-level sequencing with fast point-of-load protection in a tiered supervision scheme: TPS3760 devices supervise higher-voltage rails with hardware-timed reset, while TPS389006 devices provide low-latency monitoring of critical low-voltage rails, ensuring safe and reliable operation under dynamic load conditions.

Conclusion

High-speed GaN power stages, such as TI’s LMG3100R017VBER, provide compact, low-loss power conversion with safe high-side switching. Supervisor ICs like the TPS389006 and TPS3760 enable tiered, hardware-timed monitoring from critical low-voltage rails to higher-voltage system rails, ensuring proper sequencing and rapid fault response. By combining fast, efficient power conversion with layered supervision, designers can increase system density, reduce heat and energy waste, and maintain stable performance even under fluctuating workloads.