News: Microelectronics
2 September 2025
X-FAB offering GaN-on-Si foundry, via open-access MPW, prototyping and production for XG035 dMode projects
Analog/mixed-signal and specialty foundry X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE of Tessenderlo, Belgium is building on its expertise in gallium nitride (GaN) processing technology for high-power applications by introducing GaN-on-silicon foundry services for dMode devices as part of its XG035 technology platform. The move further leverages X-FAB’s capabilities as a pure-play foundry that now offers a set of processing technologies for GaN and other wide-bandgap (WBG) materials – including silicon carbide (SiC) – to help fabless semiconductor companies.
X-FAB provides GaN-on-Si technology from its 8-inch fab in Dresden, one of six production facilities that it operates worldwide. The Dresden fab hosts a wide range of specialized processing equipment, measurement tools and technologies that are optimized for GaN development and production, together with analog CMOS, in an automotive-qualified fab environment. Tools on site have been optimized to handle the thicker GaN-on-Si wafers required by customers in sectors such as automotive, data center, industrial, renewable energy, medical, and others.
Due to high-voltage GaN expertise over several years, in-house expertise now extends to GaN-on-Si foundry services for depletion-mode (dMode) devices following the recent release of the firm’s XG035 dMode technology as an open foundry platform. The process includes dMode high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs, scalable from 100V to 650V), which are often used in power conversion applications. In addition, X-FAB offers customer-specific GaN technologies including dMode, enhancement-mode (eMode) HEMTs as well as Schottky barrier diodes, which are popular for high-frequency rectification, power supply, and solar panel applications, among others.
Global demand is growing for charging applications, electric vehicles, advanced energy management systems and more powerful data centers, notes X-FAB. Regarding the latter, AI training and deployment is driving the need for more computational resources, which translates into higher power demand and more efficient power delivery and conversion.
GaN-on-Si technology achieves high-frequency switching and low RDS (resistance between drain and source terminals) in the ‘on’ state. With its small footprint and high-voltage capability, GaN-on-Si completes X-FAB’s offer for WBG chip processes, enabling customers to design products that improve energy efficiency from the grid down to the car battery or GPU level.
“Thanks to our 30+ years of experience in automotive CMOS technologies – including 350nm CMOS, shared tool-sets, and shared BEOL [back-end-of-line] – our GaN offering comes with built-in quality and a significantly lower barrier to entry,” says Michael Woittennek, CEO of X-FAB Dresden. “Having developed customer-specific technologies over many years, we’re now opening up our XG035 dMode technology for general prototyping projects at our Dresden fab – in the heart of Silicon Saxony. The flexibility of our 350nm tool-set also enables us to quickly scale to volume production, giving customers a fast and reliable path to market,” he adds.
“As the GaN supplier landscape evolves, X-FAB is stepping up as a dedicated GaN foundry partner,” says Luigi Di Capua, VP product marketing. “Our 8-inch GaN-on-Si platform helps customers secure their supply chain and scale their designs with confidence.”
A process design kit (PDK) that eases the design process for customers and achieves faster on-boarding is available. In addition, a public multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttle service will be available from fourth-quarter 2025, allowing multiple customers to share a single silicon wafer for chip fabrication. These steps further lower the barrier to entry for prototyping and small-volume production.
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