Finwave
Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, CEO
GaN-on-Si will dominate the RF Power Amplifier market. The technologies that currently dominate the Communications Infrastructure RF Power Amplifier market (LDMOS and GaN-on-SiC) are either not delivering enough power at high frequencies (LDMOS) or are too expensive (GaN-on-SiC). GaN-on-Si is ideally positioned to deliver the power required at frequencies above a few GHz (Wifi7, FR3, mmWave), with a more favorable cost structure and better 8-inch silicon supply chain than GaN-on-SiC. With the evolution of Communications Infrastructure systems to multiple antennas, the power requirements for each RF Power Amplifier are coming down and GaN-on-Si is ideally positioned to answer these new requirements for massive MIMO.
GaN-on-Si Power Amplifiers will be used in handsets within the next 5 years. The incumbent technology for handset RF Power Amplifiers is GaAs HBT. The GaAs HBT technology is running out of steam at frequencies over a few GHZ. With novel transistor architectures, such as the GaN-on-Si low-voltage e-mode MISHEMT developed by Finwave and being transferred to GlobalFoundries for volume production, higher power density, higher Power Added Efficiency (PAE) and higher linearity can be achieved over the incumbent GAAs HBT architecture. The GaN-on-Si low-voltage e-mode MISHEMT developed by Finwave delivers the best RF Power Amplifier performance for Wifi7, FR3 and mmWave usage in cellular handsets and will be used in handset RFFE within the next few years, once in full volume production at GlobalFoundries.