M/A-COM Technology has announced its fourth generation of Gallium Nitride on Silicon (GaN on Si) technology. This GaN Technology delivers performance that rivals expensive GaN on Silicon Carbide (GaN on SiC) at a projected volume production cost structure below that of incumbent LDMOS technology, fourth generation GaN (Gen4 GaN) is positioned to break the final technical and commercial barriers to mainstream GaN adoption.
Gen4 GaN delivers greater than 70% peak efficiency and 19 dB gain for modulated signals at 2.7 GHz, which is similar to GaN on SiC technologies, and more than 10 percentage points greater efficiency than LDMOS. It also delivers power density that is more than four times that of LDMOS. This breakthrough performance is expected to yield GaN-based devices that are half the semiconductor cost per watt of comparable LDMOS products and significantly lower cost than comparably performing GaN on expensive SiC wafers at volume production levels.
This GaN Technology extends the innovation and commercialization trajectories of earlier generations of GaN on Si, which have demonstrated clear, field-proven reliability in harsh environmental conditions. To date, over one million devices have been operating for as long as five years in demanding military applications in Iraq and Afghanistan.
MACOM will showcase its Gen4 Technology at booth #2839 at IMS 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona, May 19th – 21st, 2015. Gen4 GaN-based devices are expected to enter high volume production in 2016, and are sampling to customers today.
