AI data centers and high-performance power systems are driving unprecedented increases in voltage, current, and power density, making size, efficiency, and thermal management critical design constraints. Traditional protection approaches—electromechanical relays for high-voltage domains and solid-state devices for lower-voltage rails—face fundamental tradeoffs: bulky designs, efficiency loss, and heat generation often requiring large heatsinks, which limit scalability and rack density. MEMS-based power switches provide an industry-forward solution by combining true ohmic conduction, ultra-low on-state resistance, negligible leakage, and near-zero actuation loss. Scalable unit-cell architectures enable independent voltage and current scaling, supporting compact, high-voltage, high-current electronic fuses and circuit breakers that require no additional heatsinks, dramatically reducing footprint and thermal overhead. System-level evaluation compares MEMS-based protection with electromechanical and solid-state alternatives. An 800V, 30A eFuse implementation demonstrates improvements in efficiency, heat management, response time, and size—enabling higher power density, lower operating costs, and scalable infrastructure across AI data centers, factory automation, energy grid, and aerospace & defense applications.
