San Francisco, CA. Wolfspeed, a Cree Company and leading global supplier of GaN-on-SiC high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), touted several recent innovations and a milestone at IMS 2016. The innovations related to reliability for space applications, and the milestone related to total watts shipped.
In April, the company announced that its GaN-on-SiC RF power transistors have completed testing to demonstrate compliance with NASA reliability standards for satellite and space systems. Wolfspeed’s GaN-on-SiC fabrication processes have delivered more than 100 billion total hours of field operation with a best-in-class FIT rate of less than-5-per billion device hours for discrete GaN RF transistors and multi-stage GaN MMICs. Wolfspeed partnered with KCB Solutions to conduct a comprehensive testing program to demonstrate that Wolfspeed’s GaN-on-SiC devices meet NASA EEE-INST-002 Level 1 reliability and performance standards, derived from the MIL-STD requirements for Class S and Class K qualifications.
Wolfspeed also touted the fact that as of the end of 2015, it had shipped GaN-on-SiC RF power transistors with a combined RF output power of more than 1.3 GW (sufficient to power 124,900 U.S. residential homes for a year). Wolfspeed achieved this milestone while maintaining a failure-in-time rate (FIT rate) of 5-per-billion device hours, illustrating the industry-leading reliability and performance of Wolfspeed’s GaN-on-SiC devices.
On the IMS exhibit floor, Wolfspeed offered live product demonstrations of its latest RF technology. One demonstration centered on the CGHV14800, a new high power GaN HEMT device designed for L-Band radar applications. Providing a minimum of 800-W of pulsed power at 1.2 to 1.4 GHz with better than 65% drain efficiency, the CGHV14800 is the highest output power 50V GaN HEMT demonstrated to date, the company reported.
The company also demonstrated its new CGHV59070 GaN HEMT for C-band radar systems. The CGHV59070 delivers 50% drain efficiency at high gain, making it a suitable driver for the 350-W, 5.2- to 5.9-GHz CGHV59350 device released last year.
Wolfspeed also showcased a wideband LTE Doherty power amplifier, developed using the company’s high performance 0.4-µm 50-V GaN RF foundry process. The amplifier operates from 1.8 to 2.2 GHz instantaneously, with 55% power-added efficiency at 7.5 dB backed off to improve linearity.
