Raytheon Technologies and GLOBALFOUNDRIES® will collaborate to develop and commercialize a new GaN on Si semiconductor that will enable game-changing RF performance for 5G and 6G mobile and wireless infrastructure applications.
Under the agreement, Raytheon Technologies will license its proprietary GaN on Si technology and technical expertise to GLOBALFOUNDRIES, which will develop the new semiconductor at its Fab 9 facility in Burlington, Vt. GaN is a unique material used to build high performance semiconductors that can handle significant heat and power levels. This makes it ideal to handle 5G and 6G wireless signals, which require higher performance levels than legacy wireless systems.
“Raytheon Technologies was one of the pioneers advancing RF GaAs technology which has been broadly used in mobile and wireless markets, and we have similarly been at the forefront of advancing GaN technology for use in advanced military systems,” said Mark Russell, Raytheon Technologies’ chief technology officer. “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.”
“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,” said 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 excellence and differentiated services in RF, testing and packaging, the new GaN offering will increase RF performance while maintaining production and operational costs, enabling customers to achieve new levels of power and power-added efficiency to meet evolving 5G and 6G RF mmWave operating frequency standards.