News: Microelectronics
22 April 2020
Sanan IC enhances foundry platform for wide-bandgap power semiconductors
Sanan Integrated Circuit Co Ltd (Sanan IC) of Xiamen City, Fujian province (China’s first 6-inch pure-play compound semiconductor wafer foundry) has announced worldwide access to its growing portfolio of wide-bandgap power electronics foundry services for 650V and 1200V silicon carbide (SiC) devices, and 650V gallium nitride (GaN) power high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs).
“Sanan IC’s parent company Sanan Optoelectronics Co Ltd has extensive high-volume compound semiconductor manufacturing experience, which inspired us to start building our own line of wide-bandgap semiconductor technologies for power electronics,” says Sanan IC’s CEO Raymond Cai. “The power industry needs access to cutting edge foundry services,” he adds. “Sanan IC’s capabilities provide high-growth power markets with a comprehensive platform for product prototyping, combining reduced entry barrier and mass production with unmatched service, security and quality control.”
The power GaN market is rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55% between 2017 and 2023, forecasts analysts firm Yole Développement in its November 2019 report ‘Power GaN 2019: Epitaxy, Devices, Applications & Technology Trends’. Also, the power SiC market is growing at a CAGR of 29% over 2018-2024, according to Yole’s July 2019 report ‘Power SiC 2019: Materials, Devices and Applications’.
Initiated by the adoption of GaN solutions by top smartphone vendors and SiC in big-data markets, both technologies are recognized by the power device industry for reshaping system design. Sanan IC therefore aims to bolster GaN and SiC technology evolution. With comprehensive power electronics foundry services, extensive experience in mass production, and compliance with quality and security standards, Sanan IC aims to partner on applications including:
- electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV);
- uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) with power factor correction (PFC);
- power adapters and battery charging;
- photovoltaic inverters and energy storage;
- motor drives.
In June 2019, Sanan IC released G06P111, a standard JEDEC-qualified 650V enhancement-mode HEMT (E-HEMT) GaN process technology. Since then, Sanan IC has developed several multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttle runs for GaN process. Using Sanan IC’s process design kits (PDKs) and e-foundry services, designers can take advantage of GaN device design and performance that ensures first-time-right designs before mass production, says the firm.
This year Sanan IC plans to provide MPW runs for a much wider selection of technologies, including services for 200V and 100V low-voltage E-HEMT process, and the M3 process for large-current design. There are plans to develop additional technologies such as GaN integrated circuits and highly reliable depletion-mode (D-mode) metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors (D-MISFETs), scheduled to be added to Sanan IC’s power portfolio later this year.
Sanan IC adds 150mm 650V GaN-on-Si E-HEMT process to wafer foundry portfolio for power electronics
