14 November 2011

Nitronex qualifies NRF1 GaN process for volume production at foundry GCS

Nitronex Corp of Durham, NC, USA, which designs and makes gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) RF power transistors for the defense, communications, cable TV, and industrial & scientific markets, has completed qualification of its NRF1 discrete process (its proprietary 100mm GaN-on-Si process) for volume production at Global Communication Semiconductors Corp (GCS) of Torrance, CA, an open foundry services provider that supports III-V compound semiconductors such as HBT, PHEMT, MESFET and optoelectronics.

NRF1 has been used by Nitronex to ship more than 500,000 production devices since volume shipments began in 2009. Now, under a long-term supply agreement, GCS will exclusively provide Nitronex with NRF1 discrete and MMIC foundry services.

Devices fabricated at GCS show equivalent performance across the board to devices fabricated at Nitronex’s facility. Qualification includes extensive DC, RF, thermal, reliability and other parametric testing. Nitronex plans to work closely with customers through a Process Change Notification (PCN) to ensure a smooth transition as it establishes GCS as a qualified wafer source for all of its products.

“When evaluating GaN suppliers, our customers tell us they want to compare performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost,” says Nitronex’s CEO Charlie Shalvoy. “Our current NRF1 discrete and MMIC-based processes have enabled us to develop a family of products that, for many market applications, meet or exceed our customers’ needs relating to performance and reliability - and we have the data to prove it,” he believes.

“Partnering with GCS gives Nitronex a significant increase in capacity, improves our near- and long-term cost reduction roadmap, and provides access to capabilities that allow us to develop new GaN technologies,” Shalvoy continues. “The combination of our proprietary 100mm GaN-on-Si process, and the full suite of production and new process development capabilities at GCS, gives us the ability to be a leader in the rapidly emerging market of GaN RF power devices,” he believes.

“We are pleased to partner with Nitronex and add GaN-on-Si to our extensive compound semiconductor capability,” comments GCS’ CEO Jerry Curtis. “Nitronex's unique technology gives us access to a new and growing GaN RF market,” he adds. “Now that NRF1 process is qualified at GCS, we look forward to working closely with Nitronex and moving to volume production.”

Tags: Nitronex GaN GCS

Visit: www.nitronex.com

Visit: www.gcsincorp.com