News: Microelectronics
8 December 2022
Finwave joins MITRE Engenuity’s Semiconductor Alliance
Finwave Semiconductor Inc of Waltham, MA, USA has joined MITRE Engenuity’s Semiconductor Alliance. Finwave says that it has answered the group’s call for industry participation to help establish a US-wide approach to protect IP in advanced microelectronics R&D, manufacturing and supply chain resilience.
Led by MITRE Engenuity (a subsidiary of MITRE, a tech foundation for public good), the Semiconductor Alliance was developed from working groups in 2021, and its principles were published in a white paper ‘American Innovation, American Growth’ summarizing the Alliance’s whole-of-nation call to action for a fair and objective National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC).
Founded in 2012 by researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as Cambridge Electronics before being rebranded this June as Finwave Semiconductor (with offices in San Diego, CA and the Bay Area), the firm targets 5G communications with its 3DGaN technology, which features a 3D fin gallium nitride transistor (GaN FinFET) structure.
Finwave says that it brings to the Alliance a combination of university research, technology patents and industry professionals with company-building experience. The Semiconductor Alliance has been tasked with addressing semiconductor supply chain issues and ensuring that American IT innovation leads to American growth, and that these initiatives align closely with Finwave’s goal to make disruptive 3DGaN FinFET IC technology readily available.
GaN semiconductors are currently manufactured almost exclusively outside the USA. Working with the Semiconductor Alliance, Finwave aims to change that by stimulating IC manufacturing in the USA. Finwave champions the building of new fabs, as well as the expansion of existing fabs, to boost American semiconductor research, development and production.
“Our plan calls for radical collaboration to secure semiconductor technology innovation, manufacturing leadership, and supply chain resilience,” says MITRE Engenuity’s chief technologist Raj Jammy Ph.D., executive director of the Semiconductor Alliance. “Finwave’s plans to increase the economic competitiveness of its innovative GaN technology are exactly the type of forward-thinking ideas we need to revitalize US semiconductor leadership.”
Seeking to address the many challenges related to 5G, Finwave’s 3DGaN FinFET technology combines what is claimed to be best-in-class power amplification efficiency with high-volume manufacturing to overcome the performance and cost limitations that have together stymied widespread adoption of millimeter-wave (mmWave), says Finwave. The firm says that it significantly improves linearity, output power and efficiency in 5G mmWave systems, while greatly reducing costs for carriers. By leveraging high-volume 8-inch silicon CMOS fabs for producing 3DGaN chips, Finwave’s devices benefit from both the cost model and scalability of silicon technology.
“Semiconductor innovation is the key to making critical advances in things like 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things and other technologies that benefit society and are shaping the future,” says CEO Bin Lu. “In joining the Alliance’s growing membership, Finwave will have access to high-volume fabs and the lithography requirements necessary to bring our technology to volume production – and unlock the promise of 5G.”
Finwave raises $12.2m in Series A round to bring 3DGaN to volume production
