Navitas Semiconductor – the leader in gallium nitride (GaN) power ICs – officially announced that its next-generation GaNFast power ICs with GaNSense™ technology drive a special-edition Redmi smartphone just launched in China. The K50 Champion Edition gaming phone is a joint-release by Redmi and the legendary Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team, celebrating their 2021-season Formula 1 constructors’ championship victory.
Matching the race-winning speed of the legendary 8-times-champion Mercedes-AMG F1 team, the co-branded Redmi K50 ‘champion’ gaming phone can fully charge in a lightning-fast 17 minutes. Even under full-speed, intense gaming use, 0-100% charging can be achieved in only 37 minutes – a refreshing record in the industry. This remarkable improvement in charging speed is delivered by Navitas‘ next-gen GaN power ICs.
The Redmi K50 Champion Edition has 6.67-inch flexible OLED screen, with DisplayMate A+ certification, and Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 processor, plus dual Sony cameras on front and rear. A powerful 4700mAh battery is squeezed into a slimline 8.5mm body, with “dual heat source separation” to separate processor heat from the charging circuit. Double vapor-chamber (VC) liquid cooling, with a total area of up to 4860mm² keeps the phone cool and the gaming at top-speed.
Exterior design incorporates the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team’s exclusive green mid-waistline, green breathing lights, carbon-fiber-textured two-wing design, and the F1 checkered flag. The new K50 series has achieved breakthroughs in performance, appearance, heat dissipation, battery life, fast charging and many other aspects, and has been dubbed the a “cold-blooded flagship, firing on all cylinders”.
Driven by Navitas, the K50’s 120W ultra-fast charger measures a tight 55 x 55 x 28.4 mm (86 cc), a light-weight 138 g, and achieves an industry-leading power density of 1.4 W/cc.
Next-gen GaN operates 20x faster than traditional silicon, and can deliver up to 3x more power and 3x more charging speed in half the size and weight. GaNFast ICs with GaNSense technology integrate real-time, accurate sensing of system parameters, including current and temperature to increase energy savings by 10% and improve system reliability with a ‘detect-to-protect’ performance of only 30 ns – 6x faster than discrete implementations.
Wang Xiang, President and Partner of Xiaomi Group, said about the product launch: “We are very pleased to see the cooperation happen once again between Xiaomi and Navitas Semiconductor. Our newly-released Redmi K50 Champion Edition gaming phone comes with an in-box 120W GaN charger, enabling an industry-leading charging experience. We look forward to continuing our in-depth collaboration with Navitas and continue to bring a faster and lighter consumer charging experience to our mobile phone customers with superior products and leading technologies.
“We are excited that Redmi selected Navitas for this high-profile K50 Champion ‘in-box’ ultra-fast charger, adding to our long, successful partnership,” said Gene Sheridan, Navitas’ CEO and co-founder. “It’s a perfect match of GaNFast charging, Redmi gaming passion and Formula 1’s incredible speed.”