News: Microelectronics
9 September 2025
Enphase Energy opens US pre-orders for its first GaN-based microinverters
Enphase Energy Inc of Fremont, CA, USA (which supplies microinverter-based solar and battery systems) has opened US pre-orders for the new IQ9N-3P Commercial Microinverter. This is Enphase’s first microinverter powered by gallium nitride (GaN) technology and designed for three-phase 480Y/277V (wye) grid configurations, without using external transformers.
The IQ9N-3P is said to simplify design complexity, lower installation and balance-of-system costs, and improve system efficiency for 480V commercial projects. The GaN technology replaces traditional silicon-based components from previous product generations to enable faster switching, cooler operation, enhanced reliability, and what is claimed to be industry-leading efficiency of 97.5%. Its compact, high-performance design can manage a continuous DC current of 16A and deliver up to 427VA of peak output power, supporting high-power solar panels up to 600W.
The new microinverter meets rigorous grid compliance standards, including UL 1741-SB and IEEE 1547-2018, and features rapid shutdown, phase balancing, voltage/frequency ride-through, and loss-of-phase detection for grid safety and system reliability. Additionally, by converting direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) at each panel, Enphase microinverter systems avoid the long high-voltage DC runs found in traditional centralized (string) designs, offering a safe, all-AC architecture on the roof.
IQ9N-3P Commercial Microinverters can be deployed on small systems (less than 100kW) or large systems (hundreds of kW) and provide the flexibility to start small and expand the system size over time without any redesign. Enphase microinverter technology also enables increased energy production at the panel level under shading and uneven roof conditions, making the product suitable for commercial rooftops with HVAC obstructions, skylights and multi-tenant layouts. Enphase microinverter systems can reduce long-term operational costs for asset owners by eliminating single points of failure in the installation, providing easy replacement support, and improving fleet visibility with per-panel monitoring via the Enphase App.
“The IQ9N-3P Microinverter opens up the vast 480V commercial market segment with a breakthrough design powered by gallium nitride, a wide-bandgap semiconductor widely used in advanced radar systems and increasingly adopted in medical power and imaging electronics,” says Aaron Gordon, senior VP & general manager of the systems business unit at Enphase Energy. “By bringing this innovation to commercial energy management – and manufacturing it in the United States to help projects qualify for key federal requirements and tax credits – we are giving asset owners a solution that offers Enphase’s bankability, an industry-leading 25-year warranty, and proven reliability that’s already powering nearly five million solar energy systems across the globe.”
Enphase is showcasing both the IQ9N-3P Commercial Microinverter and IQ Gateway Commercial Pro at RE+ 2025 (8–11 September) at the Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada (booth F17702).
