The GaN RF device market is expected to grow to US $ 2 billion by 2024, and the CAGR will reach 21% in 6 years.
Picture | Unsplash @ Macau Photo Agency
5G base station construction adopts massive multi-antenna technology (Massive MIMO) and requires high-frequency broadband high efficiency, so the performance improvement of power amplifier chips and other components is facing more Big challenge.
Recently, I learned that an IC design company specializing in high-performance radio frequency gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifier chips-UGA Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “UGA Technology”), the company was founded in 2019 In October, it is a typical project transformed from the school’s knowledge achievements. The founding team members are all from the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University. At present, they have just completed the design and tape-out of the first generation of samples, and are in the stage of testing and sample delivery.
“U-Gallery Technology” had obtained an angel round of financing of over 10 million yuan in October 2019, led by Inno Angels. Common investment, Tengfei Capital, and Tsinghua DNA Fund also participated in the investment.
For the new requirements of 5G base station construction, the advantages of GaN compared to other solutions are mainly reflected in the following aspects: 1) Miniaturization, the advantages of GaN in power density have greatly reduced the chip size, and the size of the whole system There are huge improvements; 2) High efficiency and high frequency, GaN can work at a higher frequency, provide a wider signal bandwidth, and achieve lower system energy consumption. According to the company, the 5G base station AAU measured PA (RF power amplifier) (Chip) energy consumption can account for up to 44%, and the GaN solution will greatly reduce base station energy consumption.
Picture | UGA Technology
In the design of GaN power amplifier chips, the main difficulty lies in how to meet the requirements of other performance points on the basis of miniaturization , such as how to dissipate heat, maintain higher linearity, and work efficiency. Huang Fei, CEO of “U Gallium Technology,” told the company that the company was able to launch the first generation of samples in less than a year since its core design methods and principles were verified after more than ten years of repeated iterations and continuous verification in the school laboratory. “The main work of the company during this period is to design relatively mature technologies for productization.” According to reports, the company will maintain the speed of one iteration per quarter in the future, and plans to launch mass production next yearLevel chip.
In terms of product advantages, Huang Fei said that on the one hand, the company’s advantage lies in the domestically controllable and completely independent research and development of power amplifier products. On the other hand, the core team has more than ten years of experience in broadband Doherty amplifier circuit architecture. The test results show that, compared with foreign mainstream head device manufacturers, the performance indicators of the first generation products have reached the same level. In the next step, “U-Gallium Technology” will continue to iterate to make the product more advantageous in terms of performance indicators to meet the equipment manufacturers’ demand for product performance.
Although the establishment time is not long, the company ’s core team has conducted research and design of power amplifiers for more than ten years. Before the establishment of the company, the team had worked closely with equipment manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, and Datang. The technology has been applied in batches. According to Huang Fei, because customers are mostly concentrated in operators and head communication equipment vendors, current research and development mainly provides more direct solutions to customer needs.
In terms of production mode, “U Gallium Technology” adopts the fabless light asset model, focusing on chip circuit design and sales, and outsourcing production, testing and packaging. In addition to the trade-offs in basic equipment investment, the other part also considers the company’s flexibility. “In the early stage of 5G construction, various performance points from operators to equipment vendors are constantly changing. This model can be flexible and fast for the market. Respond to new demands from all parties “.
In terms of future mass production, the company tells us that there are two core key points. One is how to ensure the best performance of products on the existing fabless production mode. This requires familiarity with design methods and processes. It is relatively high, and the company’s team has already achieved outstanding technical strength and preparation at this point; on the other hand, the company is still advancing the control of product consistency at the mass production stage. The team is increasing investment and preparing to expand the relevant talent reserve.
In the application of base stations, the LDMOS solution is still the current mainstream solution. “U-Gallium Technology” believes that in the next few years, due to price and stability considerations, LDMOS will still occupy a certain proportion of the market share. However, with the outstanding performance advantages of GaN solutions, the price goes down, and the price / performance ratio increases, GaN will Will gradually replace the LDMOS scheme.
The traditional base station power amplifier field is monopolized by Freescale, NXP, and Infineon, and provides LDMOS solutions in a centralized manner. Huang Fei believes that the more opportunities for domestic GaN power amplifier chip startups are to enrich the industrial chain. On the one hand, they provide differentiated products for equipment manufacturers. On the other hand, they also reduce the risk of equipment suppliers’ supply chain and avoid excessive concentration of procurement.
Currently domestic and foreign manufacturers designing and producing base station RF PAs (including IDM, Foundry and Fabless) not much. Representative IDMs include Qorvo, Infineon, NXP, Cree, Sumitomo of Japan, ADI, MACOM, and Suzhou Nexun in China. Representative Foundry is Wen Mao, GCS, Sanan Optoelectronics, Hite High-tech, Europe UMS and OMMIC acquired by China Yifeng Electronics.
In terms of product competition strategy, according to Huang Fei, on the one hand, there are many product performance indicators, and the advantages of “UGA” in broadband and linearity are obvious, but the difference may be more reflected in the product design Above: The company focuses on Solutions for designing chip modules based on GaN materials . Although more LDMOS and low-integration GaN device solutions are used on the market today, the company believes that manufacturers have more small Market demand will be opened when the module solution reaches the landing standard.
In terms of team members, the company ’s core team comes from the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University, CEO Huang Fei has a master ’s degree in the department, and the chief scientist Professor Chen Wenhua is the Department of Tsinghua Electronic Engineering The department head hires a professor and has long been focusing on the research of high-efficiency RF power amplifier and linearization technology.
According to Yole ’s forecast, the GaN RF device market is expected to grow to US $ 2 billion by 2024, with a CAGR of 21% in 6 years. The main market growth comes from wireless communication infrastructure and military industry. The popularity of 5G will push GaN to reach $ 750 million in the wireless communications market. In the long-term planning, Huang Fei said that the company pays more attention to some application scenarios that the technology itself is good at, such as small cell base stations, WiFi6 enterprise networks, and satellite communications ground equipment and other related scenarios.
The company currently has financing needs. The new round of financing is mainly used to complete further expansion of the team and increase investment in product research and development.
Further reading
The third-generation semiconductor industry standing on the wave of “new infrastructure” (Part 1) >
Understand the market structure, investment theme and time window of 5G construction