News: Microelectronics
19 January 2022
China’s Innoscience launches international operations in USA and Europe
Innoscience Technology of Suzhou, China, which makes 8-inch gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers for power switching applications, has officially launched its international operations in the USA and Europe, enabling it to support customers through the addition of design and sales support facilities in Santa Clara in California and Leuven in Belgium.
Founded in December 2015, Innoscience first established a mass-production 8-inch wafer line for GaN-on-Si devices in Zhuhai National Hi-Tech District in November 2017, then inaugurated a new facility in Suzhou in September 2020. With 1400+ staff and over 300 R&D specialists, the firm now claims to be the largest integrated device manufacturer (IDM) fully focused on GaN technology, with two wafer fabs including what is claimed to be the world’s largest dedicated 8-inch GaN-on-Si site.
Currently, Innoscience has a capacity of 10,000 8-inch wafers per month, which will ramp up to 14,000 8-inch wafers per month later this year and 70,000 8-inch wafers per month by 2025. The company has a wide portfolio of devices with voltages ranging from 30V to 650V and has shipped more than 35 million parts for use in applications including USB PD chargers/adapters, data centers, mobile phones and LED drivers.
Innoscience produces normally-off e-mode GaN field-effect transistors (FETs). The firm says that, by introducing a stress-enhancement layer, it has significantly reduced RDS(on) without affecting other parameters, including threshold voltage and leakage. Both epitaxy as well as device processing have been optimized to achieve high reproducibility and yield. Parts have passed quality and reliability tests in excess of JEDEC standards.
“We will surpass anyone on price for an equivalent device, and our huge manufacturing capacity means that our customers are assured of security of supply, which is often uppermost in people’s minds given the shortage of chips at the moment,” says Dr Denis Marcon, general manager, Innoscience Europe. “We look forward to working with any company in order to proliferate GaN throughout the global electronics industry,” he adds.
“Customers can benefit from Innoscience’s applications understanding and demo boards to develop their unique solutions,” notes Yi Sun, general manager, Innoscience USA. “This will allow us to better support our customers in the USA, and in particular the Bay area.”
It is expected that both new Innoscience offices will expand rapidly in the coming months and years, in order to strategically support the burgeoning market for GaN-on-Si power solutions in Europe and the USA.
Innoscience inaugurates ASML lithography scanner
China’s InnoScience orders Aixtron AIX G5+ C MOCVD systems for manufacturing 650V GaN-on-Si devices
