everything RF Interviewed Reinier Beltman, CEO of Ampleon to learn more about the company, their history, their view on GaN / LDMOS Technologies and more. Prior to becoming the CEO of Ampleon, Mr. Beltman was Vice President and General Manager of the Business Line RF Power in NXP. He holds a MSc. in Electrical Engineering and started his career as designer at Philips. He has worked in several R&D and managerial (business) roles in Philips Semiconductors, LSI Logic and NXP in the Netherlands, USA and Taiwan prior to his current assignment.
Q. Can you give us a brief history about Ampleon?
Reinier Beltman: Ampleon was established on Dec 7, 2015 and is the spin-off of the RF Power business of NXP Semiconductors. Ampleon is now a privately held company with a unique focus on RF Power technologies, products and markets: The Leading Global Partner in RF Power.
Although the company is less than one year old, we have a long history in RF Power. The heritage dates back to the Philips Semiconductor days in which we have been building transistors and other RF Power products for 50 years and have been industry leader in several markets. Ampleon employs 1,250 people, is headquartered in Nijmegen / The Netherlands and has a worldwide presence in R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing and application support.
Q. For what markets does Ampleon Develop products?
Reinier Beltman: Ampleon develops products for a variety of markets, from mobile broadband, broadcast, industrial, scientific and medical (ISM), aerospace and defense (A&D) to new RF Energy markets such as solid state cooking and plasma lighting.
Ampleon has structurally increased its market share in the mobile broadband market in the last several years, which migrated from 2G over 3G to 4G. Key strengths include the world class RF Power technologies, worldwide application support and product consistency. Beyond that, we are the true leader in broadcast, have significant share in ISM and in A&D. Furthermore, we have been leading the development of RF Energy with key players in the industry, establishing ourselves as a thought leaders in this area.
Our very comprehensive RF Power product portfolio includes LDMOS and GaN products for a wide range of frequencies and output powers. We offer these with a large variety of package platforms including ceramic, over molded plastic and air cavity plastic. We offer products in the mobile broadband market, ranging from small cells, micro cell, macro cell to massive MIMO, supporting various Doherty configurations including integrated Doherty. Furthermore we offer demos, pallets and various reference designs for the different markets.
Q. Now that Ampleon is an Independent Company - Will you still have access to the LDMOS Fabs from NXP (Who is now a competitor in the space)? Do you plan to work with other Foundries? Which ones?
Reinier Beltman: Whereas Ampleon owns its own back-end manufacturing facility in the Philippines, it is fabless on the front-end side. We have safeguarded wafer supply from NXP for at least 5 years to have full business continuity with our customer base, including longevity programs. Currently we are in the process of releasing various LDMOS and GaN nodes with our foundry partners in Asia. We will continue to work with our GaN foundry partner UMS in Germany.
Q. Ampleon is now the 2nd largest supplier of LDMOS Transistors after NXP/Freescale. What is your roadmap for products using this technology? How do you see this technology evolving?
Reinier Beltman: With our focus on RF Power technology and innovation in both LDMOS and GaN, we are very well positioned to meet the growing market need for power, cost and space efficient RF.
We continue to develop world-class LDMOS technology and products for current and future customer requirements which include solutions for mobile broadband, like massive MIMO and 4.5G, as well as RF Energy markets like solid state cooking which require high performing, reliable and affordable cost levels in volume markets, like consumer white goods.
At the same time, we have been shipping GaN products to the market for several years and will continue to announce additional products. We see GaN gaining momentum beyond the A&D market, into areas such as cellular infrastructure where it will co-exist with LDMOS. Having both technologies gives us opportunity to broaden our product offering to our customers to best meet the various requirements. Moving forward we see that LDMOS and GaN will be the two - complementary - technologies of choice in the RF Power markets.
Q. With the emergence of GaN (Gallium Nitride) as a technology for High Power RF Transistors do you feel the market of LDMOS Transistors will be effected? What are your views on this?
Reinier Beltman: As mentioned above, we indeed see GaN gaining momentum in markets like mobile broadband where LDMOS was fully dominating for many years. It is emerging especially at the higher frequencies (e.g. 4.5/5G) and in broadband applications. GaN will also continue to grow in the A&D markets where it will replace other technologies like GaAs.
Our view is that GaN will partly replace LDMOS and will play a key role in (new) higher frequency bands in cellular markets. At the same time it will be the main technology in the A&D market in the future.
Q. Ampleon has a wide product range of GaN Transistors - What is your roadmap for products using this technology. Have you seen an increase in demand for GaN Transistors?
Reinier Beltman: Our GaN roadmap shows various products for both mobile broadband (4/4.5/5G) as well as the A&D market. This is supporting an increasing demand for the coming years in our target markets. Key focus is to release technologies with our foundry partners which can support steep product volume ramps in a reliable way. This has been the biggest struggle for GaN companies and foundries across the industry.
Q. What is Ampleon's percentage break-up of LDMOS vs GaN as a function of total sales at the moment? How do you see this changing in the future?
Reinier Beltman: Today and in the near future, the majority of our sales is in LDMOS. We see a fast growth of GaN sales in the coming years in our target markets.
Q. What is Ampleon's view on RF Energy? As a founding member of the Alliance how do you plan to support this emerging industry?
Reinier Beltman: RF Energy markets including Solid-state cooking and plasma lighting could exceed the traditional RF Power markets by 2020 according to market reports. For over 5 years we have been leading the development of RF Energy with key players in the industry developing ourselves as thought leaders in this area. Ampleon and Midea, a leading global consumer appliance manufacturer, earlier this year announced the results of a joint collaboration on the use of solid state technology for compact oven design. This initiative has resulted in Midea launching what is believed to be the world’s first commercially available solid state RF Energy oven. Amongst others, Ampleon has co-founded the RF Energy alliance with its mission to “standardize, promote and educate target audiences in solid state RF energy systems as heating and power generators.” This will enable to develop the associated markets with current and future partners and customers.
We support the RF Energy markets through a combination of RF Power transistors with leading performance/cost ratios, providing full application support through a deep system understanding and engineering support as well as the ability to ramp products quickly and reliable in volume production.
Q. What does Ampleons's current geographic distribution of customers look like? Do you expect this to change over the next few years?
Reinier Beltman: With a - consolidated - mobile broadband customer base generating the largest part of our revenue stream we have a large footprint in both Europe and Asia with the focus on China. This is complemented by a large number of customers around the US, Europe and Asia in various countries in the other markets, like broadcast, industrial, scientific and medical (ISM), aerospace and defense (A&D) and new RF Energy markets.
We will continue to serve a worldwide customer base for which design-in activities are supported across the globe. Given the nature of our volume businesses, product shipments tends to migrate eastwards.
Q. It’s almost been a year since the formation of Ampleon. How are things going? What are some goals that you have for the near future?
Reinier Beltman: In our first year of being an independent company, Ampleon has fully focused on business continuity with our customer base in all aspects. Based on customer feedback, we apparently have been very successful in doing this, achieving highest quality ratings on various business initiatives. Short term goals include the full independence from our previous company (except for some of the wafer supply which will still continue for several years). Through additional investments in technologies and products we are targeting to grow our business with our current and new customers in the above mentioned markets. With a unique focus on RF Power we focus on continuous market share gain by giving full support to our customers.
Last but not least, in this time of change, we have been putting a lot of effort in making Ampleon a great place to work for our current and future employees.
- View Ampleon's Profile on everything RF
- See Amploeon's Portfolio of LDMOS Transistors
- See Amploeon's Portfolio of GaN Transistors
