Sensor, power and high-voltage foundry Polar Semiconductor has signed an agreement with Renesas Electronics to license its gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon D-mode technology (GaN-on-Si).
Under the deal, Polar will fabricate 650 V class GaN-on-Si devices for Renesas and others in its 200 mm automotive-qualified manufacturing facility in Minnesota.
Polar received up to $123 million through the CHIPS and Science Act to double its U.S. production capacity of sensor and power chips. This direct funding was part of more than $525 million from private, state and federal sources to transform the company from a foreign-owned in-house manufacturer to a majority U.S.-owned commercial foundry.
Polar and Renesas said they will work to scale commercial production of GaN devices for a range of industries like:
- Automotive
- Consumer electronics
- Data centers
- Industrial
- Aerospace
- Defense
Additionally, it will secure a domestic source of GaN-on-Si semiconductor technology.
Why it matters
Wide bandgap technologies are growing significantly due to their expanded use in power electronics as well as applications like electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
For the past two years, semiconductor vendors that are developing GaN, SiC and other wide bandgap technologies have been rapidly expanding their future semiconductor manufacturing capacity in anticipation that these markets are only going to continue to grow. As a result, the wide bandgap market has seen considerable investments from all the major players to ensure future capacity or provide future capacity for use by automotive OEMs and energy companies.
GaN technology is accelerating in demand as it provides better performance than pure silicon technology as well as better quality, Polar said.
