news digest ♦ RF Electronics
“The wireless application ecosystem is evolving with the advent of Zigbee, 4G, near field communication, and the IoT, and RFaxis’ technology helps OEMs ease into this transition by helping wireless communication devices perform faster,” notes Nayak. “Frost & Sullivan’s benchmarking shows that RFaxis is efficiently extending the range of wireless communication applications through its RFeIC solutions without increasing the form factor or cost.”
Every year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated uniqueness in developing and leveraging new technologies, which significantly impacts both the functionality and the customer value of the new products and applications. The award lauds the high R&D spend towards innovation, its relevance to the industry, and the positive impact on brand perception.
MACOM acquires Nitronex for $26 million
Nitronex’s GaN-on-silicon adds to MACOM’s process and product portfolio addressing RF applications
M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. (MACOM), a supplier of high performance analogue, RF, microwave and millimetre wave products, has acquired Nitronex, LLC, a specialist in the design and manufacture of GaN based RF solutions.
The acquisition of Nitronex is expected to provide
MACOM with fundamental and innovative GaN-on- silicon epitaxial and pendeoepitaxial semiconductor process technology and materials for use in RF applications, establishing MACOM’s growing GaN technology portfolio as one of the broadest in the industry.
Nitronex previously leveraged this technology to offer the
industry’s first GaN-on-silicon RF discrete devices and MMICs, providing a unique combination of GaN-based performance, ease of integration and a cost structure that can support high volume, mainstream markets.
The high device linearity, high output power and efficiency characteristics of GaN devices make GaN-on- silicon technology ideal for demanding high bandwidth
communications such as CATV, broadband radio, wireless infrastructure, radar and ISM applications.
“GaN technology has been long viewed as the driver of the next generation of RF and Microwave applications,” says John Croteau, President and CEO, MACOM. “With today’s announcement, MACOM now provides what
112
www.compoundsemiconductor.net March 2014 we believe to be the industry’s largest portfolio of GaN
devices. MACOM’s broadened portfolio of GaN-on-silicon and GaN-on-SiC technologies offers customers the flexibility to utilise the best solution to solve their RF and Microwave design challenges.”
“Nitronex is excited to join MACOM, a leader in high performance RF and microwave technology,” says Greg Baker, President and CEO of Nitronex. “Today’s announcement accelerates the deployment of GaN as a dislocating technology and furthers Nitronex’s vision
of bringing GaN-on-silicon to the fullest breadth of commercial and aerospace and defence applications possible. I believe MACOM’s more than thirty years of experience in high performance RF power devices
can help propel GaN-on-silicon to the next level of commercialisation, bringing it to a truly mainstream volume production technology.”
MACOM purchased Nitronex from GaAs Labs, LLC for approximately $26 million in cash, subject to potential post-closing adjustments.
MACOM financed the transaction through a draw of additional indebtedness from its revolving credit facility. GaAs Labs, LLC is an affiliate of the majority stockholder
of MACOM’s parent company, M/A-COM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.
Nitronex selects Agilent software for high-power GaN design
The software will provide a complete GaN design flow that spans both device modelling and circuit simulation
Nitronex, a GaAs labs company and producer of GaN- on-silicon RF power devices, has selected Agilent’s software for its GaN power device design.
The design flow uses Agilent EEsof EDA’s IC-CAP model extraction software and Advanced Design System (ADS) circuit and system simulator - both platforms in RF and microwave design.
Gallium nitride has emerged as a semiconductor material of choice for designing RF power devices, providing a formidable combination of high bandwidth, efficiency and power.
In the case of Nitronex, whose GaN devices use silicon as a substrate, there is an added inherent cost advantage to its approach. Nonetheless, as with the development of any high-power device, designing for high levels of reliability, performance and yield requires
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 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164