SCOTTSDALE, USA: Although spending on RF power semiconductors in wireless infrastructure markets has continued to stagnate, other markets – notably the military -– are seeing increased activity.
Also, according to a new study from ABI Research, gallium nitride –- long seen as a promising new “material of choice” for RF power semiconductors -– is finally starting to gain some market traction. The research indicates that total available market for RF power semiconductors in 2009 approaches $1 billion.
“Gallium nitride (GaN) has markedly increased its market share in 2009 and is forecast to be a significant force by 2014,” notes ABI Research Director Lance Wilson.
“It bridges the gap between two older technologies, exhibiting the high-frequency performance of gallium arsenide combined with the power handling capabilities of silicon LDMOS. It is now a mainstream technology which has achieved measurable market share and in future will capture a significant part of the market.”
The vertical market showing the strongest uptick in the RF power semiconductor business has been the military, which Wilson describes as being “now a very significant market.” While the producers of these devices are located in the major industrialized countries, the military market is now so global that end equipment buyers can be from anywhere.
“RF Power Semiconductors” examines RF power semiconductor devices that have power outputs of greater than 5 watts and operate at frequencies of up to 3.8GHz, which represent the bulk of applications in use today. The last study ABI Research published on this topic appeared late in 2007.
With the current release, analysis of the six main vertical segments (wireless infrastructure; military; industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM); broadcast; commercial avionics and air traffic control; and non-cellular communications) which was previously subdivided into 24 sub-segments, is expanded to 29 sub-segments.
Showing posts with label GaN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GaN. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
RFMD announces GaN foundry services
BOSTON, USA: RF Micro Devices Inc., a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance semiconductor components, announced the company has formed a gallium nitride (GaN) Foundry Services business unit to supply high-reliability, high-performance and price-competitive GaN semiconductor technology into multiple RF power markets.
The RFMD GaN Foundry Services business unit will leverage the company's industry leadership in gallium arsenide (GaAs) manufacturing capacity and cycle times, as well as a range of new customer services, to drive shorter time-to-market and minimize time between initial wafer order and final delivery.
RFMD is the industry's leading manufacturer of GaAs compound semiconductors. RFMD's GaN manufacturing is interchangeable with its GaAs manufacturing and directly benefits from the scale and demonstrated expertise of RFMD's industry-leading wafer fabrication capability.
Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group, said: "RFMD's Foundry Services business unit is providing GaN foundry customers access to RFMD's industry-leading compound semiconductor technology and production facility and the many benefits of RFMD's scale manufacturing, including reliability, uniformity, cycle time and quality. RFMD GaN is a breakthrough technology that can change the RF power component industry as a result of its superior linearity, bandwidth and RF power density. Additionally, RFMD GaN is a "green" technology enabling higher efficiencies than previously possible, thereby requiring less power consumption to achieve similar performance or superior performance at similar power consumption levels."
RFMD's offering of GaN foundry services is distinctive in the industry because RFMD operates the industry's largest GaAs fabrication facility (fab) and has supplied its customers billions of high-reliability, high-quality compound semiconductor based RF components.
By utilizing its existing, high-volume manufacturing assets, RFMD is able to deliver foundry customers GaN technology with predictable, industry-leading reliability and increased uniformity. RFMD offers industry-leading cycle times and estimates its GaN cycle times through its wafer fab are typically 30-40% faster than its competition.
Also, by leveraging RFMD's deep knowledge of semiconductor process models to accurately predict product performance, RFMD's Foundry Services business unit can lower customer development costs by reducing the number of prototype runs necessary to meet customer specifications.
Customer applications expected to benefit from RFMD GaN include commercial and defense power applications including wireless infrastructure, CATV line amplifiers, broadband communication, power amplifiers and various defense radar systems.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services customers gain access to a seasoned Foundry Services support team with first-hand knowledge of foundry customers' expectations and requirements. RFMD's Foundry Services support team combines more than 50 years of foundry services experience, both as foundry customers and foundry suppliers.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services support team has implemented a full set of services intended to minimize the total time from order entry to customer delivery. Services include simulation models that enable a high probability of initial success and business processes that enable little or no queue time.
RFMD GaN is a next-generation compound semiconductor technology that delivers much higher power density and breakdown voltage than competing technologies and is ideally suited for very high performance power devices.
Typical operating characteristics of RFMD GaN include operating voltages of 48 (or 65) volts, power density of 6 to 8 watts/mm, FTs of 11 GHz and F max of 18 GHz and MTTF greater than 100M hours at 150 degrees C channel operating temperature.
The RFMD GaN Foundry Services business unit will leverage the company's industry leadership in gallium arsenide (GaAs) manufacturing capacity and cycle times, as well as a range of new customer services, to drive shorter time-to-market and minimize time between initial wafer order and final delivery.
RFMD is the industry's leading manufacturer of GaAs compound semiconductors. RFMD's GaN manufacturing is interchangeable with its GaAs manufacturing and directly benefits from the scale and demonstrated expertise of RFMD's industry-leading wafer fabrication capability.
Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group, said: "RFMD's Foundry Services business unit is providing GaN foundry customers access to RFMD's industry-leading compound semiconductor technology and production facility and the many benefits of RFMD's scale manufacturing, including reliability, uniformity, cycle time and quality. RFMD GaN is a breakthrough technology that can change the RF power component industry as a result of its superior linearity, bandwidth and RF power density. Additionally, RFMD GaN is a "green" technology enabling higher efficiencies than previously possible, thereby requiring less power consumption to achieve similar performance or superior performance at similar power consumption levels."
RFMD's offering of GaN foundry services is distinctive in the industry because RFMD operates the industry's largest GaAs fabrication facility (fab) and has supplied its customers billions of high-reliability, high-quality compound semiconductor based RF components.
By utilizing its existing, high-volume manufacturing assets, RFMD is able to deliver foundry customers GaN technology with predictable, industry-leading reliability and increased uniformity. RFMD offers industry-leading cycle times and estimates its GaN cycle times through its wafer fab are typically 30-40% faster than its competition.
Also, by leveraging RFMD's deep knowledge of semiconductor process models to accurately predict product performance, RFMD's Foundry Services business unit can lower customer development costs by reducing the number of prototype runs necessary to meet customer specifications.
Customer applications expected to benefit from RFMD GaN include commercial and defense power applications including wireless infrastructure, CATV line amplifiers, broadband communication, power amplifiers and various defense radar systems.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services customers gain access to a seasoned Foundry Services support team with first-hand knowledge of foundry customers' expectations and requirements. RFMD's Foundry Services support team combines more than 50 years of foundry services experience, both as foundry customers and foundry suppliers.
Additionally, RFMD's Foundry Services support team has implemented a full set of services intended to minimize the total time from order entry to customer delivery. Services include simulation models that enable a high probability of initial success and business processes that enable little or no queue time.
RFMD GaN is a next-generation compound semiconductor technology that delivers much higher power density and breakdown voltage than competing technologies and is ideally suited for very high performance power devices.
Typical operating characteristics of RFMD GaN include operating voltages of 48 (or 65) volts, power density of 6 to 8 watts/mm, FTs of 11 GHz and F max of 18 GHz and MTTF greater than 100M hours at 150 degrees C channel operating temperature.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Compound semi: Bulk GaN market in 2009
FRANCE: How will the price decline of free-standing GaN material open new doors in lighting and power applications? The “Bulk GaN Market 09” report from Yole Developpement analyses free-standing bulk GaN substrates in various applications: Blue Laser Diodes, HB-LED and Power Electronics.
Is there a life for bulk GaN substrate out of the blue laser diode business? How will material price decline open new doors in lighting and power applications?
From blue lasers to lighting and power electronics
Today, bulk or Free-Standing (FS) GaN substrate market is mostly driven by the blue laser diode production only and its related application in high-density data storage. This market is driven by strong demand for Bluray players and game stations.
From 2011 and most likely 2012, Ultra-High Brightness (UHB) LEDs will start taking part of the bulk-GaN production. That will only be possible with a sharp drop in bulk-GaN prices. We forecast that the critical threshold is below $1,500 for a 2" "LED-grade" substrate. Only such a price level will act as leverage for LED market take-off. 2012-2013 will also see the introduction of new power devices based on bulk-GaN.
Again, here, that is strongly linked to the pricing of bulk-GaN that will have to compete with 4" and future 6" SiC offer and GaN-on-Silicon alternate technology.
Lack of bulk material pushes for ELO technique
Market is now essentially centered on free-standing material but the shortage of this product has to be compensated by the use of home-made ELO-GaN on sapphire substrates. We assume about 28% of LD was made on ELO-GaN in 2008. This percentage will decrease a little but will stay significant by 2012.
Asia dominates the substrate business but EU and US exhibit credible challengers
The main free-standing producer remains Sumitomo, mostly supplying Nichia and Sony for laser production. Others challengers such as Hitachi-cable (now sampling 3" wafers) or Mitsubishi Chemical are becoming more and more present.
In Europe, LumiLOG, now part of Saint-Gobain group, is fine-tuning its product line-up for the LED illumination business; Ammono and TopGaN are improving their strong expertise in low dislocation density crystals.
US is mainly focusing on non or semi-polar material, with Kyma, Inlustra Technologies or Oxford Instruments (TDI).
By 2015, bulk GaN for LED will dominate the substrate market in volume
The 2" substrates production volume could reach about 100,000 units by 2010, leading to a relative $240M market for both free-standing and ELO. Beyond 2013, the growing demand for bulk GaN in LED lighting applications will rapidly dominates the market in volume.
This report presents the detailed major market metrics of the current and projected bulk / free-standing GaN substrate business, describing the targeted applications, the key players, the volumes and related market size of each segment.
It gives the possible total accessible market for GaN substrates, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of this technology over the current established epiwafer or ELO technologies. It describes the recent progress in crystalline quality as well as the new challenges offered by non-polar and semi-polar GaN material.
Is there a life for bulk GaN substrate out of the blue laser diode business? How will material price decline open new doors in lighting and power applications?
From blue lasers to lighting and power electronics
Today, bulk or Free-Standing (FS) GaN substrate market is mostly driven by the blue laser diode production only and its related application in high-density data storage. This market is driven by strong demand for Bluray players and game stations.
From 2011 and most likely 2012, Ultra-High Brightness (UHB) LEDs will start taking part of the bulk-GaN production. That will only be possible with a sharp drop in bulk-GaN prices. We forecast that the critical threshold is below $1,500 for a 2" "LED-grade" substrate. Only such a price level will act as leverage for LED market take-off. 2012-2013 will also see the introduction of new power devices based on bulk-GaN.
Again, here, that is strongly linked to the pricing of bulk-GaN that will have to compete with 4" and future 6" SiC offer and GaN-on-Silicon alternate technology.
Lack of bulk material pushes for ELO technique
Market is now essentially centered on free-standing material but the shortage of this product has to be compensated by the use of home-made ELO-GaN on sapphire substrates. We assume about 28% of LD was made on ELO-GaN in 2008. This percentage will decrease a little but will stay significant by 2012.
Asia dominates the substrate business but EU and US exhibit credible challengers
The main free-standing producer remains Sumitomo, mostly supplying Nichia and Sony for laser production. Others challengers such as Hitachi-cable (now sampling 3" wafers) or Mitsubishi Chemical are becoming more and more present.
In Europe, LumiLOG, now part of Saint-Gobain group, is fine-tuning its product line-up for the LED illumination business; Ammono and TopGaN are improving their strong expertise in low dislocation density crystals.
US is mainly focusing on non or semi-polar material, with Kyma, Inlustra Technologies or Oxford Instruments (TDI).
By 2015, bulk GaN for LED will dominate the substrate market in volume
The 2" substrates production volume could reach about 100,000 units by 2010, leading to a relative $240M market for both free-standing and ELO. Beyond 2013, the growing demand for bulk GaN in LED lighting applications will rapidly dominates the market in volume.
This report presents the detailed major market metrics of the current and projected bulk / free-standing GaN substrate business, describing the targeted applications, the key players, the volumes and related market size of each segment.
It gives the possible total accessible market for GaN substrates, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of this technology over the current established epiwafer or ELO technologies. It describes the recent progress in crystalline quality as well as the new challenges offered by non-polar and semi-polar GaN material.
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