GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, a fabless developer of gallium nitride (GaN)-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications, says that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TMSC, the world's biggest silicon wafer foundry) has expanded the high-volume manufacturing of products based on GaN System's proprietary Island Technology by 10x in response to surging global demand from consumer and enterprise customers. GaN Systems claims to have has the industry's broadest and most comprehensive portfolio of GaN power transistors with both 100V and 650V GaN FETs shipping in volume.
Transistors based on GaN Systems' Island Technology and using TSMC's GaN fab process are claimed to have the best figure of merit in the industry, outstripping the capabilities of the highest-performance silicon power semiconductors, the latest silicon carbide (SiC) devices and competing GaN products. The combination of TSMC's gallium nitride process and GaN Systems' Island Technology design is further enhanced by GaNPX packaging, which delivers high current handling, low inductance and what is claimed to be exceptional thermal performance. GaN Systems' power switching transistors provide what is claimed to be best-in-class 100V and 650V devices, driving product innovation ranging from thinner TVs to extended-range electric vehicles.
Picture: GaN Systems' family of power transistors.
"Our collaboration with GaN Systems has brought the promise of gallium nitride from concept through reliability testing and on to volume production," notes TSMC's VP business management Sajiv Dalal.
"Smart mobile devices, slim TVs, games consoles, automotive systems and other mass-volume items have been designed with GaN transistors as the enabling power technology, so it is imperative that devices are available in correspondingly large quantities," says GaN Systems' president Girvan Patterson. "Using our patented Island Technology, we have designed and made available for widespread adoption GaN power solutions that greatly exceed the performance standards exhibited by silicon devices. That is why, after three years of working together, we are so excited to formally announce our collaboration with TSMC, the world's leading third-party semiconductor manufacturing company," he adds.
Delivering large volumes of highly reliable GaN transistors in near-chip-scale packaging is the culmination of work that GaN Systems began in 2008. The firm was founded with the aim of creating a low-cost, highly reliable GaN-on-silicon product based on Island Technology, a method of creating small islands where electro-migration is mitigated, die size is minimized, and very high current devices are realized with high yield, says the firm. Using Island Technology with TSMC's GaN-on-Si manufacturing techniques enabled GaN Systems to deliver normally-off transistors to market in mid-2014. The firm claims that this has allowed global power system manufacturers in the energy storage, enterprise and consumer sectors to design, develop, test and bring to market more powerful, lighter and far smaller new products. "To meet customers' increasing demand for high GaN volumes in 2016, TSMC's commitment to volume production flow comes at the perfect time," notes GaN Systems.
