After purchasing Nitronix to acquire GaN on Si technology, promising it would displace LDMOS in base station power amplifiers, investing in device and process development and qualification, defending its IP by suing Infineon, negotiating a high volume manufacturing partnership with STMicroelectronics that required developing a CMOS-compatible version of the process, MACOM has achieved what it long promised: volume production orders.

CEO John Croteau announced the company’s first three volume production orders during the second fiscal quarter earnings call on May 1, saying “We’re shipping.”

The orders are for 50 to 270 W devices for the 2.4 and 3.5 GHz cellular bands.

Croteau said the production agreement with STMicroelectronics opened the door to “executive level sponsorship within two of the top three OEMs in Europe and Asia.”

Responding to a question from Harsh Kumar, a financial analyst at Piper Jaffray, Croteau said, “The ability to surge to meet demand is vitally important. And this is arguably the first GaN supply chain that can actually operate with the same scale, capacity, surge capacity as LDMOS.”

Listen to Croteau’s scripted comments about the initial orders and his response to Harsh Kumar’s follow-up questions.