Nitronex, a leader in the design and manufacture of gallium nitride (GaN) based RF solutions for high performance applications in the defense, communications, cable TV, and industrial & scientific markets, has successfully completed qualification of its NRF1 discrete process for volume production at Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS). Under a long-term supply agreement between the two companies, GCS will exclusively provide Nitronex with NRF1 discrete and MMIC foundry services. NRF1 is Nitronex's proprietary 100mm GaN-on-Si process and has been used to ship more than 500,000 production devices since volume shipments began in 2009.
Devices fabricated at GCS show equivalent performance across the board to devices fabricated at Nitronex's Durham, NC 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. We believe that 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. 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," said Charlie Shalvoy, CEO of Nitronex Corp. "The combination of our proprietary 100 mm 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 added.
"We are pleased to partner with Nitronex and add GaN-on-Si to our extensive compound semiconductor capability. Nitronex's unique technology gives us access to a new and growing GaN RF market," said Jerry Curtis, CEO of GCS Corp. "Now that NRF1 process is qualified at GCS, we look forward to working closely with Nitronex and moving to volume production."
