Executive Interview: Philip Chesley, Senior Vice President and President of the High-Performance Analog (HPA) Group at Qorvo

1. You’ve seen a lot of change in the RF industry. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what excites you today about Qorvo?

I’ve spent the better part of 28 years in the semiconductor industry developing power management, RF and mixed-signal products. I’ve been in my current role at Qorvo since 2021. I was previously with Renesas, where I spent four years as VP and GM. Prior to Renesas, I was with Intersil for about 15 years as a senior executive. I've been in the business a long time, and I’ve seen an amazing evolution in semiconductor technology.

There are many things that I’m excited about at Qorvo, beginning with our advanced RF technologies. I see so many new opportunities and applications to apply our beamforming, high-frequency filter and higher-voltage and higher-frequency GaN technologies. We also see significant new opportunities in power management, motor control and SiC applications. As the world electrifies and connects, Qorvo’s HPA technologies are critical to this transition.

2. The HPA group has a very broad range of products. Can you describe your portfolio and market focus?

HPA focuses on providing a complete portfolio of RF and power management solutions for defense and aerospace (D&A), infrastructure, automotive and industrial markets. With our RF family of products, we continue to focus on D&A, SATCOM, 5G base stations and cable broadband. We are also adding our advanced onshore RF packaging capability to support our D&A customers. In power management, including our silicon carbide (SiC) products, we address D&A, automotive, data centers and renewable energy markets.

3. What are the core competencies and technologies that distinguish Qorvo in the marketplace?

Qorvo is a recognized leader in GaN, GaAs, beamforming and advanced RF filter technology and we continue to invest heavily in these innovative technologies. Qorvo is also investing in advanced onshore RF packaging capability required to meet the size and RF performance needs of next-generation systems. In power management, we are a leader in PMICs and motor control for a variety of industrial and consumer applications; our SiC JFET products lead with industry-best RDS_on performance. Qorvo is also distinguished by the quality of our customer service and our outstanding technical support.

4. Where is your development focus? What applications, products and markets make you excited for the future?

HPA is focused on the global megatrends of electrification and connectivity. Both trends require better RF, better power management and smaller form factors and for the D&A market, more onshore development and manufacturing. This is where we are focusing our development resources.

Each market we service has exciting areas that we think are in the early innings of innovation and technology needs.

In the Defense & Aerospace market, we see SWaP-C (size, weight, power and cost) needs accelerating. We are well-positioned with a comprehensive portfolio highlighted by integrated GaN, GaAs, beamforming and RF Silicon front-end modules that span a broad range of frequencies and power levels. Complementing these modules are switch/filter banks that combine multiple BAW filters with switches for new antenna architectures.

One good example is the U.S. DOD, which continues to upgrade to advanced new active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar platforms, which have significantly more RF content. Defense budgets worldwide are increasing at a pace not seen in decades and we are now seeing an acceleration of AESA technology deployment as well as AESA upgrades that support higher frequencies and smaller footprints.

We also offer foundry services where customers can design their products and run them in our GaN and GaAs fabs. In addition, we offer custom product flows where we do the design to the customer’s specs and then run a product that is precisely tailored to their systems. Many customers choose all three engagements, and we increasingly integrate these components into multifunction modules for them.

I am also excited about the benefits that satellite-based internet coverage will bring to humanity. This technology will drive unparalleled access to the internet and will require very demanding RF and power management performance.

Our SiC JFET technology is leading the way to better efficiency in everything from data centers, automotive DC/DC and onboard chargers and new and innovative circuit protection capabilities in residential and automotive applications.

In infrastructure, Qorvo is capitalizing on its strong position in amplifiers and modules for broadband cable access by enabling cost-effective upgrades to the advanced DOCSIS 4.0 standard that brings faster upload and download speeds via cable.

It’s hard to pick what I am most excited about. We are still in the early innings of so many new and innovative technologies. It’s certainly a great time to be in the semiconductor industry.

5. How do you see your product, market and customer mix changing in the next five years? What do you envision as the mix of organic growth and acquisition activities to support this evolution?

Qorvo continues to execute its diversification strategy, which is aimed at expanding our footprint in existing markets like D&A with new product categories (our Anokiwave acquisition, for example), but also moving into rapidly growing markets like SATCOM, automotive and datacenter. From a product perspective, we are focused on more integrated RF-based products (both in silicon and at the RF module level) and building a larger presence in power management. As we build out these product families and grow our market share in new markets, we will significantly broaden the number of customers we serve. We’re primarily focused on organic growth, but if we see a gap in technology or an opportunity to expand and accelerate our presence in a key market, we will consider an acquisition.

6. Speaking of acquisitions, Qorvo recently acquired Anokiwave, a fabless provider known for its mmWave silicon ICs. How does this acquisition fit into and enable the Qorvo/HPA vision?

Anokiwave is a great example of Qorvo expanding its product capability in our core markets. Anokiwave’s high-frequency beamforming and intermediate frequency (IF)-to-RF conversion ICs are a strong complement to Qorvo's RF front-end products. The combination of our unique capabilities will enable us to supply products and solutions with superior levels of performance, efficiency and integration required for D&A, SATCOM and 5G network infrastructure applications.

7. Qorvo also acquired UnitedSiC nearly three years ago for its SiC power electronics capabilities. Can you describe some of Qorvo's offerings in those markets and what opportunities you are excited about?

Through UnitedSiC, Qorvo acquired an innovator in silicon carbide power devices and a pioneer in SiC JFETs. Adding SiC power devices and JFETs to our HPA business further leverages Qorvo’s wide bandgap competencies and significantly expands our market opportunities in high-power applications. This acquisition enables us to deliver high-value, best-in-class intelligent power solutions for data center, automotive, D&A and infrastructure markets.

8. Can you describe the culture of the HPA group?

HPA reflects the Qorvo DNA of innovation and continuous improvement through amazing teamwork, strong communication and a laser focus on building long-term partnerships with our customers.

9. What else would you like our readers to know about Qorvo and the HPA Group?

First, Qorvo HPA is going to continue to invest in strengthening our portfolio of RF products, process technologies and advanced RF packaging for D&A. Second, we're going to continue to build a world-class power management product portfolio. Third, we continue to shift our investment focus away from slower-developing markets to markets where we see accelerated growth. Over time, HPA will become much more broadly diversified and offer an even wider set of technologies.