Excellent performance of GaN: driving the scale, supply security and rapid response of mainstream RF applications

The market structure of RF semiconductor technology has undergone significant changes in recent years.

Lateral diffusion metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) technology has dominated the RF semiconductor market for commercial applications for decades. Today, this balance has changed, and GaN-on-Si technology has become the technology of choice for replacing traditional LDMOS technology.

Compared to LDMOS, the performance advantages of silicon-based gallium nitride have been firmly established - it can provide more than 70% power efficiency, increase power per unit area by 4 to 6 times, and can be extended to high frequencies. At the same time, comprehensive test data has confirmed that silicon-based gallium nitride meets stringent reliability requirements, and its RF performance and reliability are comparable to or even surpass the expensive GaN-on-SiC replacement technology.

The emergence of silicon-based GaN as a cutting-edge technology in the RF semiconductor industry is at a critical juncture in the development of commercial wireless infrastructure. The performance advantages of GaN-based GaN compared to LDMOS technology have been proven, which has driven its widespread use in the latest generation of 4G LTE base stations and positioned it as the most suitable technology for future 5G wireless infrastructure. Sexual market impacts may go far beyond mobile connectivity and will be involved in transportation, industrial and entertainment applications.

Looking forward, silicon-based GaN-based RF technology is expected to replace the old magnetron and spark plug technology, giving full play to the value and potential of commercial solid-state RF energy applications such as cooking, lighting and automotive ignition. We believe the energy/fuel efficiency of these applications. And the accuracy of heating and illumination will make a qualitative leap in the near future.

Manufacturing and cost-effective breakthroughs

Given the unprecedented pace and scale of 5G infrastructure expansion, there is growing interest in the cost structure, manufacturing and rapid response capabilities of silicon-based GaN versus LDMOS and GaN-based gallium nitride, as well as supply chain flexibility and Inherent reliability. As an outstanding semiconductor technology unique to the next-generation wireless infrastructure, silicon-based GaN is expected to achieve superior GaN performance with LDMOS cost structure and commercial expansion capabilities that support large-scale requirements.

MACOM and STMicroelectronics today jointly announced plans to introduce silicon-based GaN technology into the mainstream RF market and applications, marking an important turning point in the GaN supply chain ecosystem and will be the future of MACOM's RF semiconductor technology strength and ST. A perfect combination of scale and operational excellence in silicon wafer manufacturing. We expect this agreement to expand the size of MACOM's supply, while also promoting scale-up, capacity and cost structure optimization to accelerate the popularity of silicon-based GaN technology in the mass market.

For wireless network infrastructure, this collaboration is expected to enable cost-effective deployment and expansion of silicon-based GaN technology to 4G LTE base stations and large-scale MIMO 5G antennas, where the absolute density of the antenna configuration is extremely high for power and thermal performance. Value, especially at higher frequencies. With proper development, the power efficiency advantages of silicon-based GaN will have a profound impact on the operating costs of wireless network operators' base stations. MACOM estimates that with the average energy rate model of $0.1/kWh, converting only a large new base station deployed in a year to MACOM silicon-based GaN technology can save more than $100 million.

New Era

The development of silicon-based GaN from early development to commercial scale applications is undoubtedly the most disruptive technological innovation process, opening a new era for the RF semiconductor industry. Through an agreement with ST, MACOM silicon-based GaN technology will have unique advantages to meet the performance, cost structure, manufacturing capability and supply chain flexibility requirements of future 4G LTE and 5G wireless base station infrastructure in solid-state RF energy. The application area has unlimited potential. The RF solution provided by GaN is a price/performance metric that LDMOS and GaN-based GaN competing technologies cannot match, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.