Application of Gallium Nitride in Radio Frequency Electronics

In recent years, due to the application of 5G, everyone's attention to RF GaN has increased.

Qorvo also believes that GaN is very suitable for providing the high frequency and wide bandwidth required by the millimeter wave field. It can meet the performance and small size requirements, as shown in the figure below. Applications that use the millimeter wave frequency band require highly directional beamforming technology (beamforming focuses the radio signal into a strong directional beam, thereby increasing power and minimizing interference on user equipment). This means that the RF subsystem will require a large number of active components to drive a relatively compact aperture. GaN is very suitable for these applications, because it provides strong performance in a small package size is one of its most notable features.

According to a report by Yole, an internationally renowned analysis organization, in early June, the GaN radio frequency industry started with silicon carbide-based GaN technology. Yole further pointed out that the silicon carbide-based gallium nitride technology came out 20 years ago and has now become the main competitor of LDMOS and gallium arsenide in the field of RF power applications.

According to Yole, in addition to its deep penetration in radar, silicon carbide-based gallium nitride has always been the choice of telecom OEMs, such as Huawei, Nokia, and Samsung all using this technology in their 5G massive MIMO infrastructure. The high bandwidth and high efficiency of silicon carbide-based GaN technology have enabled it to continuously seize the share of LDMOS in the 5G market, and the benefits of the transition to the 6-inch wafer platform have begun to appear.

In this context, Yole predicts that the silicon carbide-based gallium nitride device market will grow at a CAGR of 17% between 2020 and 2026, and the overall scale is expected to reach more than US$2.2 billion in 2026.

In the radio frequency gallium nitride market, in addition to silicon carbide-based gallium nitride, silicon-based gallium nitride is also another option.

Poshun Chiu, Yole's technology and market analyst specializing in compound semiconductors and emerging substrate businesses, also pointed out that as a key challenger, silicon-based GaN is still competitive and is expected to bring cost-effective and scalable solutions. He also emphasized that although silicon-based GaN PA has a small market volume in the second quarter of 2021, its large bandwidth and small size have attracted many smartphone OEMs. With the significant technological advancement of innovative competitors, this technology may soon be adopted in some sub-6GHz 5G mobile phones. This will undoubtedly mark a milestone in the silicon-based GaN radio frequency industry.

According to Yole's data forecast, the recent addition of foundries and the synergy with the emerging power electronics silicon-based gallium nitride industry will also help silicon-based gallium nitride radio frequency to maintain long-term development momentum. Driven by mobile phone and defense and 5G telecommunications infrastructure applications, the silicon-based GaN device market will grow at a CAGR of 86% between 2020 and 2026, and the scale is expected to reach US$173 million in 2026.

Yole further pointed out that the value of the entire GAN RF market has reached 891 million US dollars in 2020. Between 2020 and 2026, the compound annual growth rate will be as high as 18%. From the perspective of the market, the GaN RF device market will be dominated by 5G telecom infrastructure and defense applications. By 2026, the two will account for 41% and 49% of the total market, respectively. They also emphasized that, driven by 5G telecommunications and national defense, Gan-on-SiC technology is still more popular in terms of high power density and thermal conductivity.

For these two different gallium nitride products, Roger Hall, general manager of Qorvo's wireless infrastructure and defense products high-performance solutions business unit, also expressed his views in an interview with Microwave Magazine in the early years.

Roger Hall emphasized that Qorvo is not opposed to silicon-based gallium nitride, but the company is more inclined to silicon carbide-based gallium nitride as its future development direction. Because the company believes that if the output goes up in the future, the cost can be lowered.

In addition, Roger Hall said that when considering cost, you should not only consider the cost of GaN itself, but should consider the total cost of modules or subsystems that include GaN, including die, packaging, testing, supporting components, integration, and so on. Because most products are integrated modules, rather than separate things.

'So we think the overall cost is the combined cost of multiple components. If this is the case, we think the total cost of silicon carbide-based gallium nitride will be reduced, and it is also very excellent in terms of efficiency and technical performance. Compared with Silicon-based gallium nitride has better heat dissipation performance and higher efficiency. This is very valuable for users. In addition, the size of silicon carbide-based gallium nitride is also smaller, which saves system space. 'Roger Hall continued.

As a leading RF solution provider, Qorvo also has a broad layout in GaN.

According to Qorvo FAE manager Xun Ying introduced at the Semicon China 2020 Power and Compound Semiconductor International Forum 2020, from a process point of view, Qorvo can currently provide gallium nitride manufacturing processes ranging from 90 nanometers to 0.56 micrometers. Taking the high-voltage and low-frequency range as an example, Qorvo's 0.25μm high-voltage technology (ie QGaN25HV) comes into play. QGaN25HV allows us to increase to 48V with 0.25μm devices, achieving high gain and power efficiency. QGaN25HV is very suitable for 5G base stations moving towards 6GHz.

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