Gallium Nitride is emerging as a leading technology for high power, high frequency semiconductor applications. Gallium Nitride exhibits several characteristics that approach the performance of an ideal semiconductor substrate:

• High breakdown voltage
• High power density
• High frequency operation
• High Efficiency
• Good thermal conductivity properties

Though there are several competing technologies that can match some of the capabilities of Gallium Nitride (GaN), GaN has several advantages over legacy RF technologies:

1. High Breakdown Voltage
2. Enhances Carrier Density and Saturation Velocity
3. Enables Higher operating Junction Temperatures

Further, since most GaN is Grown on semi-insulating substrates, parasitic losses are diminished, compared with other technologies. the result? High power density and high power output over a wide bandwidth and improved performance for a variety of applications.

There has been much debate in the industry about the use of LDMOS versus GaN for high power applications. while LDMOS dose have a manufacturability advantage (LDMOS is fabricated on silicon wafers), the performance of LDMOS cannot match that of GaN. A comparison table is shown below.

	GaN	LDMOS
Processing	Bespoke fab	Standard CMOS
Wafer Diameter	3-6 Inches (SiC)	8 Inches (Si)
Max Frequency	>12 GHz	3.8 GHz
Band gap	3.4 eV	1.1 eV
Max Temperature	250 °C	225 °C
Johnson FoM	324	1
Mask Count	13	22
Electron Velocity - Saturated	1.5 x 105m/s	1 x 105m/s
Electron Velocity - Peak	2.7 x 105m/s	1 x 105m/s
Breakdown Field	300 V/um	25 V/um
typ BVds	175 V	75 V