News: Microelectronics
19 May 2021
Raytheon and GlobalFoundries partner to develop and commercialize GaN-on-Si for 5G and 6G mobile and wireless infrastructure
Aerospace & defense technology firm Raytheon Technologies Corp of Waltham, MA, USA and GlobalFoundries (which has operations in Singapore, Germany and the USA) are collaborating to develop and commercialize gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology for 5G and 6G mobile and wireless infrastructure, which requires higher radio-frequency performance than legacy wireless systems (for which gallium nitride can handle the significantly heat and power levels).
Raytheon will license its proprietary GaN-on-Si technology and technical expertise to GlobalFoundries, which will develop it at its Fab 9 facility in Burlington, Vermont (where it has nearly 2000 staff, out of more than 7000 across the USA).
Picture: GlobalFoundries Fab 9 in Burlington, VT.
The collaboration with Raytheon Technologies is the latest of several strategic partnerships for GlobalFoundries. Over the past 10 years GlobalFoundries has invested $15bn in US semiconductor development and is doubling its planned investment in 2021 to expand global capacity and support growing demand from the US government and industry customers for secure processing and connectivity applications.
“Raytheon Technologies was one of the pioneers advancing RF gallium arsenide technology which has been broadly used in mobile and wireless markets, and we have similarly been at the forefront of advancing gallium nitride technology for use in advanced military systems,” says the firm’s chief technology officer Mark Russell. “Our agreement with GlobalFoundries not only demonstrates our common goal to make high-performance communications technologies available at an affordable cost to our customers, it continues to prove how investments in advanced defense technologies can improve lives, as well as defend them,” he adds.
“GlobalFoundries’ fab in Essex is leading the way in domestic production of this important 5G-enabling technology and beyond,” comments Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “This collaboration between a world-class manufacturer, GlobalFoundries, and Raytheon Technologies, a leader in technological innovation, is good news for the nation’s semiconductor supply chain and competitiveness,” he adds.
“GlobalFoundries’ innovations have helped drive the evolution of four generations of wireless communications that connect over 4 billion people. Our collaboration with Raytheon Technologies is an important step to ensuring the development and manufacturing capability of solutions for critical future 5G applications,” says GlobalFoundries’ CEO Tom Caulfield. “This partnership will enable everything from AI-supported phones and driverless cars to the smart grid, as well as governments’ access to data and networks which are essential to national security.”
Combined with GlobalFoundries’ manufacturing and services in RF, testing and packaging, Raytheon’s GaN technology will increase RF performance while maintaining production and operational costs, enabling higher levels of power and power-added efficiency to meet evolving 5G and 6G RF millimeter-wave operating frequency standards.
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