Nitronex Partnership with GCS Leads to a Capacity Advantage in Rapidly Growing GaN RF Market
Share:
Nitronex qualifies NRF1 GaN process at GCS...
DURHAM, NC - Nitronex, a leader in the design and manufacture of gallium nitride (GaN) based RF solutions for high performance applications in the defense, communications, cable TV, and industrial & scientific markets, has successfully completed qualification of its NRF1 discrete process for volume production at Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS). Under a long-term supply agreement between the two companies, GCS will exclusively provide Nitronex with NRF1 discrete and MMIC foundry services. NRF1 is Nitronex's proprietary 100mm GaN-on-Si process and has been used to ship more than 500,000 production devices since volume shipments began in 2009.
Devices fabricated at GCS show equivalent performance across the board to devices fabricated at Nitronex's Durham, N.C. facility. Qualification includes extensive DC, RF, thermal, reliability, and other parametric testing. Nitronex plans to work closely with customers through a Process Change Notification (PCN) to ensure a smooth transition as it establishes GCS as a qualified wafer source for all of its products.
"When evaluating GaN suppliers, our customers tell us they want to compare performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost. We believe that our current NRF1 discrete and MMIC-based processes have enabled us to develop a family of products that, for many market applications, meet or exceed our customers' needs relating to performance and reliability - and we have the data to prove it. Partnering with GCS gives Nitronex a significant increase in capacity, improves our near and long-term cost reduction roadmap and provides access to capabilities that allow us to develop new GaN technologies," said Charlie Shalvoy, CEO of Nitronex Corporation. "The combination of our proprietary 100mm GaN-on-Si process, and the full suite of production and new process development capabilities at GCS, gives us the ability to be a leader in the rapidly emerging market of GaN RF power devices," he added.
"We are pleased to partner with Nitronex and add GaN-on-Si to our extensive compound semiconductor capability. Nitronex's unique technology gives us access to a new and growing GaN RF market," said Jerry Curtis, CEO of GCS Corporation. "Now that NRF1 process is qualified at GCS, we look forward to working closely with Nitronex and moving to volume production."
About Nitronex
Nitronex Corporation is an innovative leader in the design and manufacture of gallium nitride (GaN) based RF solutions. Nitronex is the pioneer in developing high performance gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) semiconductor solutions using its proprietary SIGANTIC® manufacturing process. Nitronex products enable high performance applications in the defense, communications, cable TV, and industrial & scientific markets. An ISO-9001 certified manufacturer, Nitronex was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Durham, NC. Nitronex has been awarded 24 patents with 15 others pending. For more information, please visit the Nitronex web site at www.nitronex.com.
About GCS
GCS is a leading open foundry services provider located in Torrance, CA that supports III-V compound semiconductors such as HBT, PHEMT, MESFET and Optoelectronics. It has extensive experience in GaAs epitaxial materials, devices, processing, monolithic IC, and backside via holes. GCS provides high quality wafer products, cost effective solutions and rapid turn around manufacturing services to our foundry customers. For more information on GCS, visit the Company's web site at www.gcsincorp.com
Nitronex Corporation
2305 Presidential Drive, Durham, NC 27703 USA
www.nitronex.com
E-mail: info@nitronex.com
Telephone: 919-807-9100
Fax: 919-807-9200
For more information, contact:
Gary Blackington
Vice President, Worldwide Sales & Marketing
919-424-5202
gblackington@nitronex.com
Kara Harmon
Inside Sales & Marketing Manager
919-424-5222
kharmon@nitronex.com
