News: Microelectronics
9 June 2026
WIN’s 0.12µm GaN power process qualified for 40V operation
WIN Semiconductors Corp of Taoyuan City, Taiwan — which provides pure-play gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) wafer foundry services for the wireless, infrastructure and networking markets — says that its NP12-0B process has been qualified for 40V operation.
This 0.12μm gate-length GaN-on-SiC technology integrates multiple transistor improvements, providing high ruggedness when operated in deep-saturation/high-compression pulsed and CW conditions. These enhancements proved so effective that NP12-0B has now satisfied qualification testing for reliable 40V operation of power amplifier (PA), T/R switch and single-chip front-end monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs).
NP12-0B is a rugged, versatile platform and provides what is claimed to be the unique set of capabilities of high output power, low insertion loss switching and low noise figure, expanding the performance envelope of this platform. Enabling high-performance amplifiers, output transistors tuned for maximum power at 18GHz and 40V provide 7.9W/mm saturated output power (Psat), 13.3dB gain and 42% power-added efficiency (PAE). When tuned for maximum PAE, the same power cell exhibits 6.1W/mm Psat, with 14.6dB gain and 55% PAE at 18GHz. When used in a switch configuration, common-gate devices show insertion loss below 0.4db, power handling greater than 42dBm, with sub-20nS switching speed using a 40V control voltage. Adding to its power capabilities, NP12-0B also provides what is claimed to be excellent noise figure with typical Fmin of 1dB with 10dB associated gain at 20GHz. The performance capabilities and reliable 40V operation greatly expands the trade-space for high-performance front-end products used in next-generation radio access networks, satellite communications and radar systems, says WIN.
The NP12-0B platform has been in production since 2024 and is available with the Enhanced Moisture Ruggedness option, which provides excellent humidity resistance for use in plastic packaging. The updated 40V process design kit (PDK) supporting PA, switch and low-noise amplifier (LNA) designs are available for customer download in second-quarter 2026.
WIN is exhibiting in booth#23048 at the 2026 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Boston, MA, USA (7–12 June).
WIN launches linearity optimized 0.12µm GaN power process
WIN announces beta release of NP12-0B mmWave RF GaN-on-SiC technology
