News

29 September 2010

 

RFMD adds its GaAs technology to foundry services

After 15 years of supplying GaAs-based products manufactured in its wafer fabrication plants, RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA has added its gallium arsenide technology to its foundry services portfolio and will begin providing a full suite of GaAs pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) technologies to customers of its Foundry Services business unit.

RFMD currently provides Foundry Services customers access to two of its gallium nitride (GaN) process technologies from its wafer fab in Greensboro: GaN1 (targeted at high-power applications) and GaN2 (targeted at high-linearity applications). RFMD also offers an Integrated Passive Component (IPC) technology optimized to complement high-power applications. The firm's GaAs pHEMT technologies are complementary to its GaN technologies and other power semiconductor technologies for the design of multi-chip modules (MCMs).

Specifically, RFMD is now making available three distinct GaAs pHEMT technologies optimized for high power, low noise and RF switching products. The firm says that its 0.3-micron pHEMT technology delivers high power and is optimized for X-band phased-array power amplifiers (PAs) and 8–16GHz wideband military electronic warfare jammers. Its 0.25-micron pHEMT technology delivers low noise, medium power and high linearity and is targeted at applications including low-noise front ends and transmitter MMICs. Its 0.6-micron pHEMT technology provides low-noise and high-linearity switching of RF signals and is designed for applications including wireless front ends and transmit/receive modules.

All of the process technologies are manufactured in RFMD’s fab in Newton Aycliffe, UK, providing Foundry Services customers access to European technology with the ease of European import/export controls, the firm notes.

“RFMD is the world’s largest manufacturer of III-V circuits for electronics, including both GaAs and GaN,” comments Bob Van Buskirk, president of the firm’s Multi-Market Products Group (MPG). “With our world-class GaAs technology, technology expertise, high-volume manufacturing, industry-leading cycle times and unprecedented levels of support, our foundry service enables a wide range of foundry customers to utilize advanced compound semiconductor technologies in an efficient and cost-effective business model,” he claims.

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