RF Micro Devices Inc. announced the introduction of the RF393X family of 48 V gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors. The RF393X product family offers power performance from 10 to 120 W and very wide tunable bandwidth, demonstrating the superior combination of high power and bandwidth offered by RFMD’s GaN technology versus competing GaAs and silicon LDMOS technologies.
RFMD’s RF393X product family is comprised of five 48 V GaN unmatched power transistors, each of which deliver gain in the range of 14 to 16 dB and high peak drain efficiency of greater than 65 percent at 2.1 GHz. The superior performance characteristics of RFMD’s GaN power transistors make them ideal for wideband, high efficiency power amplifier applications, such as broadcast television, wireless infrastructure, high power radar, aerospace and avionics.
RFMD estimates the total addressable market for GaN high power semiconductors is approximately $1 B, of which the market for GaN unmatched power transistors is approximately $150 M. The company is engaged with top-tier customers in multiple markets and expects to commence production in the second half of calendar 2007.
Bob Bruggeworth, RFMD president and CEO, said, “RFMD is positioned to capture significant market share in the $1 B high power semiconductor market. We enjoy unparalleled customer relationships in the wireless semiconductor industry, we are an industry leader in compound semiconductor manufacturing and we are the world’s leading manufacturer of cellular power amplifiers. We are leveraging these core competencies as we expand our GaN product portfolio to drive new growth opportunities in multiple high growth markets.”
RFMD is developing three families of high voltage GaN products. In addition to GaN power transistors, the company is developing high power GaN RF integrated circuits (RFIC) and high power GaN matched transistors. The high power GaN RFICs are fully matched high power amplifiers that deliver high efficiency over multiple octaves of bandwidth and are suitable for applications such as military communications, public mobile radio and software definable radios (SDR).
The high power GaN matched transistors include internal matching elements to improve impedance and efficiency and are suitable for applications such as high power radar and infrastructure for WCDMA and WiMAX.