ST and TSMC collaborate to accelerate market adoption of GaN-based products

STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TMSC, the world's biggest silicon wafer foundry) are collaborating to accelerate the development of gallium nitride (GaN) process technology and the supply of both discrete and integrated GaN devices to market. Through this collaboration, ST’s GaN products will be manufactured using TSMC’s GaN process technology.

Specifically, power GaN and GaN IC technology-based products will enable ST to provide solutions for medium- and high-power applications with better efficiency compared to silicon technologies on the same topologies, including automotive converters and chargers for hybrid and electric vehicles. They will also help to accelerate the megatrend of the electrification of consumer and commercial vehicles, says ST.

“As a leader in both wide-bandgap semiconductor technology and in power semiconductors for the demanding automotive and industrial markets, ST sees significant opportunity in accelerating the development and delivery of GaN process technology and bringing power GaN and GaN IC products to the market,” says Marco Monti, president of STMicroelectronics’ Automotive and Discrete Group. “TSMC is a trusted foundry partner that can uniquely meet the challenging reliability and roadmap evolution requirements of ST’s target customers,” he comments. “This cooperation complements our existing activities on power GaN undertaken at our site in Tours, France and with CEA-Leti. GaN represents the next major innovation in power and smart power electronics, as well in process technology,” adds Monti.

“We look forward to collaborating with ST and bring the applications of GaN power-electronics to industrial and automotive power conversion,” says TSMC’s VP of business development Dr Kevin Zhang. “TSMC’s leading GaN manufacturing expertise, combined with STMicroelectronics’ product design and automotive-grade qualification capabilities, will deliver great energy-efficiency improvement for industrial and automotive power conversion applications.”

ST expects the delivery of first samples of power GaN discrete devices to its key customers later this year, followed by GaN IC products within a few months.

Tags: STMicroelectronics TSMC Power electronics

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