industry GaN power electronics
Commercial status of the GaN-on-silicon power industry
Firms developing and producing GaN-on-silicon devices for the power electronics industry come in many different
flavours.Some sell on the open market; some just ship to a chosen few; others offer foundry services; and there are also those that form partnerships. Zel Diel from Venture-Q LLC considers these various approaches and their implications, before looking at how far companies have progressed towards commercialization of their technology.
T
he developers and producers of GaN-on- silicon power electronics are pursuing various strategies. Some are looking to sell their devices on the open market; others are targeting the closed merchant market; and there are also those that are offering foundry services, or licensing their technology (see Figure 1 for a pictorial representation of these different approaches).
Launching products on the open merchant market is a well-known business strategy that is common for mature technologies. The manufacturer tries to win sales directly or through a distributor. US firm Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) operates in this manner, with its distributor, Digi-Key, selling the eGaN transistors that it introduced in 2010.
An alternative approach is to offer a product in the closed merchant market. This strategy, which is common with a new technology, is often employed within the scope of a partner business engagement. The primary virtue of this approach is that it limits access to a vendor’s know-how and its intellectual property (IP). Companies pursuing this strategy include the US firms International Rectifier (IRF) and Transphorm. One feature of this form of commercialization is that the vendor-partner relationship is often conducted within the scope of a non-disclosure agreement.
Markets for GaN-on-silicon products include inverters for wind turbines and solar
farms.This class of electronics is more efficient than the incumbent silicon technology at converting the output from these renewable sources into a form that can be fed into the grid
March 2013
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 35
Within the compound semiconductor industry, there are also manufacturing foundry services providing access to GaN-on-silicon technology. Companies offering this include RF Micro Devices, which has an rGaN-HV technology that is available to its merchant customers and business partners. A noteworthy feature of this commercialization is the vendor- customer or partner relationship that enables access to the vendor’s technology and manufacturing.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143