TI converts Japanese 200mm fab to GaN, quadruples capacity

Texas Instruments has begun the production of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors at a 200mm wafer fab in Aizu, Japan.

Together with production at Dallas, Texas, this will quadruple TI’s GaN manufacturing capacity and allow it to reduce dependence on outsourced supply. TI said it expects to be able to make 95 percent of its GaN chips internally by 2030.

TI has a proprietary GaN-on-Si manufacturing process and has piloted the manufacture of GaN power devices on 300mm wafers although in Aizu production is on 200mm-diameter wafers. TI’s expanded GaN manufacturing processes are transferable to 300mm technology, positioning the company to move to 300mm in the future.

“Building on more than a decade of expertise in GaN chip design and manufacturing, we have successfully qualified our 200mm GaN technology – the most scalable and cost-competitive way to manufacture GaN today – to start mass production in Aizu,” said Mohammad Yunus, TI’s senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, in a statement.

The GaN chips are starting with 900V rated devices and increasing to higher voltages over time, furthering power-efficiency and size innovations for applications such as robotics, renewable energy and server power supplies.