Wolfspeed expands portfolio for telecom and radar markets
Durham, NC. Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, has announced new LDMOS and GaN HEMT product offerings that enable smaller systems with greater reliability and efficiency. Wolfspeed said its recent acquisition of the Infineon RF power business expanded its product portfolio, accelerating the company’s progress in developing innovations for telecommunications and aerospace/defense applications.
“The acquisition of Infineon’s RF power business has enabled Cree’s Wolfspeed business to transition to the next level of the RF power-semiconductor business,” said Lance Wilson, research director at ABI Research. “Historically, Wolfspeed has been a principal player in GaN technology, but the addition of Infineon’s LDMOS portfolio has put them into the top echelon of high-power RF.”
The acquisition brings LDMOS technology and expertise to Wolfspeed, enabling the company to provide the optimal RF power solution to meet customers’ needs, regardless of the type of technology used.
The expansion includes Wolfspeed’s new 28-V 2,620- to 2690-MHz asymmetric Doherty transistor, which is an LDMOS Doherty transistor that utilizes LD12 technology. This and other LD12 components use a plastic overmold package that delivers the same performance as open-cavity packages, offering increases in efficiency at a lower cost. Wolfspeed has industry-leading performance in such plastic packages, which can bring significant cost savings to telecom applications, the company said.
“Wolfspeed is committed to supporting the growth of our LDMOS portfolio, as shown by the release of our new 28-V asymmetric Doherty transistor,” said Gerhard Wolf, Wolfspeed’s vice president and general manager of RF. “The expansion of our LDMOS portfolio delivers on the promise of continued innovation for cellular applications, like improved 4G networks and the shift to 5G networks.”
In the radar market, Wolfspeed is providing aerospace and defense operators better target discrimination and a longer detection range with the launch of the highest output power GaN products on the market, including a 1,200-W packaged GaN HEMT, the company said. The 1,200-W GaN HEMT sets a new industry benchmark for performance by delivering the highest output power for a GaN L-band radar product on the market today. The device’s high output power enables fewer devices to be used, resulting in simplified system architectures, lower materials costs, reduced energy consumption, and increased system reaction time that is critical in defense and aerospace settings.
The company highlighted its new LDMOS and GaN HEMT technologies during IMS 2018.