RFMD announces qualification of GaN power semiconductor process for 65 V operation

BALTIMORE, USA: RF Micro Devices Inc. has qualified its GaN1 power semiconductor process technology for 65V operation. The high reliability power semiconductor process technology supports RFMD's GaN-based power semiconductor product designs and is also available to foundry customers through RFMD's Foundry Services business unit.

Previously, RFMD's GaN1 power semiconductor process technology had been qualified for 48V operation. The increase in operating voltage from 48V to 65V enables miniature, 0.5kW power devices with high operating efficiency for L- and S-Band military and civilian radar applications.

Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group (MPG), said: "The qualification of our 65V GaN1 power process technology enables RFMD to target multiple higher voltage market opportunities across MPG's diversified markets while helping our foundry customers to design smaller periphery die for high power applications. RFMD continues to optimize our game-changing GaN process technology for both foundry customers and proprietary RFMD product designs, with particular emphasis on higher peak efficiency, lower power consumption and higher linearity."

RFMD's 48V GaN1 process technology is an established performance leader in the high power semiconductor industry, and RFMD's 65V GaN1 process technology moves the performance bar even higher. RFMD's 65V GaN1 process technology demonstrates a Mean-Time-to-Failure (MTTF) of 43 million hours with a channel temperature of 200 degrees Celsius at power densities of 10Watts, a significant industry performance benchmark. The high reliability power semiconductor process is ideally suited for higher voltage operations in next generation military, radar, and public/defense mobile radio applications.