News: Microelectronics
24 February 2022
GaN Systems expands Taiwan-based Asia operation by 3x
GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) has expanded its Asia presence with a 3x increase in its operation in Taiwan. Due to a 3x growth in revenue from consumer electronics, electric vehicles (EVs), and data-center and industrial power supply producers embracing GaN Systems’ power transistors, more people and space were necessary, says the firm.
The new office campus is in Hsinchu Science Park, which is also headquarters to GaN Systems’ foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest dedicated independent (pure-play) semiconductor foundry.
GaN System’s Asia headquarters, which opened with a few employees in 2015, has grown by more than 10x and will exceed 100 staff in the coming year. The space features a research and design center with dedicated subject matter experts in the design and system validation of solutions for customers in several markets, including mobile phones, laptop PCs, data-center power supplies, and automotive EV power-train electronics. The enlarged R&D team will expand GaN Systems’ lineup of high-performance transistors and high-power modules and build on its extensive range of reference designs for 65W, 100W and 250W phone and computer chargers, PFC, DC-DC, and inverter designs for higher-power markets.
“GaN Systems has grown tremendously, driven by the rapid adoption of GaN in consumer, industrial and automotive electronics,” says Stephen Coates, VP, global operations & general manager, Asia. “Our campus in Taiwan scales up our manufacturing, product and module design, and innovation footprint, and expands support for our global customers and business partners,” he adds. “This 3x expansion demonstrates our commitment to Asia and to supporting the continued growth of Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem.”
Acceleration of the growth in Asia continues with the addition of Andy Chuang, GaN Systems’ VP of business development. Based in the new Taiwan office, Chuang has decades of wide-bandgap experience. Incremental to the expansion in Taiwan, GaN Systems says that its presence in Asia is also growing with success in India in e-mobility, with applications in the two-, three- and four-wheeler EV segments.
GaN Systems’ says that growth in the Asia region and internationally are affirmation of its US$150m growth capital funding round (announced in mid-November) to accelerate innovation and adoption of GaN technology across its automotive, consumer, industrial and enterprise markets (with global companies such as Dell, HARMAN, Siemens, Signify and Philips already relying on its transistors).
