Zhiyuan is equipped with Innoscience chips: Is it a new inflection point for GaN?

When Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot completed a backflip, the global tech community realized that the physical flexibility of humanoid robots was no longer a science - fiction fantasy. However, what is less well - known is that the core supporting this series of high - difficulty movements is inseparable from the performance leap of power devices.

It is reported that Shanghai Zhipu Robotics, a leading embodied intelligence manufacturer, has started to equip its robots with Innoscience's gallium nitride (GaN) chips. This marks that GaN devices have officially broken through the consumer electronics field and become the "power nerves" of the humanoid robot industry.

This cross - border integration not only rewrites the technical path of robot core components but also spawns a new market ecosystem worth trillions of dollars.

01 GaN: The "Power Core" of Humanoid Robots

If you disassemble the hip joint module of a humanoid robot, you will find that more than 20 black chips the size of fingernails are densely arranged in the joint cavity with a diameter of more than ten centimeters. These are GaN devices. Traditional silicon - based MOSFETs simply cannot fit into such a small space. Compared with MOSFETs, the chip area of the entire GaN power device is reduced by more than 50%.

This space anxiety reflects the extreme demand of humanoid robots for power devices.

Currently, mainstream humanoid robots are equipped with 30 to 40 joint motors. GaN devices are configured according to the joint size: small joints such as fingers require 3 to 6 chips, medium - sized joints such as elbows require about 12 chips, and the largest joints need 24 chips. According to this calculation, the basic usage of GaN in a single robot is about 300 chips.

With the addition of new degrees of freedom such as five - finger dexterous hands and waist - torsion joints, the usage of GaN in a single robot will exceed 1000 chips.

Three Engines of Explosive Demand are accelerating this process: First, the number of motors is increasing, evolving from the current 40 joints to 60 degrees of freedom; Second, the expansion of functional modules, with new application scenarios such as GPU power management and battery management systems (BMS) emerging; Third, the improvement of power density, with the power of joint motors upgrading from the current 80W to 200W.

As a representative of the third - generation semiconductor materials, GaN has actually long occupied an important position in display technology fields such as LED lighting and laser display. In recent years, with its excellent breakdown electric field, thermal conductivity, electron saturation rate, and high - frequency bidirectional conduction characteristics, the application prospects of gallium nitride in the field of semiconductor power devices have attracted more and more industry attention.

Now, the reason why GaN can be widely used in the humanoid robot industry is due to its performance advantages, which have subverted the performance boundaries of traditional power devices. This seemingly ordinary wafer contains the core code that allows robots to "stretch their muscles and bones".

First, when a humanoid robot performs a delicate movement like grasping a glass, the finger joint motor needs to switch from stationary to 500 rpm within 0.1 seconds. This requires the driving device to support a higher PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) frequency, and the switching speed of GaN FETs is higher than that of silicon - based MOSFETs.

Second, behind the robot's range anxiety is the energy - consumption black hole of power devices. Traditional silicon - based devices generate huge energy losses during the switching process, accounting for 23% of the total motor power consumption. With its unique heterojunction structure, GaN devices have smaller gate capacitance (CG) and output capacitance (Coss), and the switching loss is reduced by 85% compared with silicon - based devices.

In addition, as mentioned above, in the "space - scarce" battlefield of robot joints, GaN also shows amazing space - compression capabilities. Innoscience's actual tests show that after using GaN, the volume of the joint drive board is reduced by about 50%, and at the same time, a significant energy - saving effect is achieved, promoting both the robot's range and movement flexibility.

02 The Choice of the Leader, the Direction of the Future

As a leading enterprise in the field of humanoid robots, Shanghai Zhipu Robotics was the first to apply joint motor drives integrated with Innoscience's GaN devices to its robots, solving the bottlenecks of traditional silicon - based devices in power density and control accuracy through GaN technology.

It is reported that currently, Zhipu's humanoid robots have applied GaN devices in 3 motors of key movable joints such as the neck and elbows. Each motor integrates 3 GaN chips, and GaN devices have been installed in hundreds of humanoid robots.

The choice of the industry leader fundamentally determines the potential development direction of the industry.

Now, Innoscience has started mass - supplying GaN devices, marking that GaN has officially entered the commercialization stage from the technology verification stage in the robot field, laying the foundation for large - scale application in the future.

Morgan Stanley depicted the astonishing growth trajectory of humanoid robots in a report: the global sales volume will reach 9 million units in 2030, 134 million units in 2040, and exceed 1 billion units in 2050.

The penetration rate in the supply chain is increasing year by year.

Upstream, according to Frost & Sullivan, in 2023, the market size of gallium nitride power semiconductors was RMB 1.8 billion, accounting for 0.5% of the global power semiconductor market. With the increasing maturity of technology and the wider range of downstream applications, 2023 is regarded as the starting year of exponential growth in the gallium nitride industry.

It is estimated that by 2028, the global market size of gallium nitride power semiconductors will reach RMB 50.1 billion, accounting for 10.1% of the power semiconductor market, and the penetration rate will increase year by year.

Behind this soaring growth curve is a positive - feedback loop between the cost - reduction curve of core devices such as GaN and the penetration rate of robots.

Morgan Stanley particularly emphasized China's core position in this industrial revolution: it is estimated that by 2050, China will account for 60% of the global humanoid robot market, becoming the largest consumer market and production base.

When 1 billion humanoid robots enter factories, families, and the service industry, human society will face unprecedented changes. The application of Innoscience's GaN devices in Zhipu's robots is a micro - cosmo of this change.

Looking back from the technological juncture in 2025, the "combination" of Innoscience and Zhipu is like a watershed. Before this, GaN was an "upgraded performance option" for consumer electronics; after this, it became a "necessity for survival" for humanoid robots.

When hundreds of robots equipped with GaN devices are delivered around the world, what we see is not only the commercialization of a technology but also the budding of a new industrial ecosystem of "robot + GaN".

In the next decade, with the continuous decline in the cost and improvement in the performance of GaN, humanoid robots will move from laboratories to production lines and from high - end service industries to ordinary families. This technological revolution led by Chinese enterprises will not only rewrite the global semiconductor industry landscape but also reshape the collaborative relationship between humans and machines.

Perhaps, as science - fiction writer Isaac Asimov said, "The ultimate progress of humanity lies in teaching machines how to better serve the value of life." And GaN is the indispensable "power code" in this progress.