In this topic, David Shih, senior manager of high-power integrated solutions from Qorvo, will discuss these issues with numerous industry experts:
Has GaN replaced LDMOS in wireless infrastructure? Has the advantage of silicon-based GaN changed from PPT to reality? Does GaN challenge GaAs and silicon at millimeter-wave frequencies? What are the performance advantages of GaN for switching, mixers, and low-noise amplifiers? • Have Chinese companies already possessed competitive technologies and production capabilities?
Ultra-dense networking increases the efficiency of frequency reuse by increasing the deployment density of base stations, and brings about considerable capacity growth. With the increase in the number of base stations in the future, the demand for RF devices in the base stations will also increase substantially.
David Shih believes that all macro base station deployments above 5GHz will see GaN replacing LDMOS gradually, and GaAs will also benefit from the growth in demand for small base station networks. The rapid development of small base stations and Massive MIMO will require more and more integration. High, GaN's inherent advantages will accelerate the process of power device integration. 5G will drive the rapid development of GaN industry, but LDMOS still has the advantages of cost, chip size and other aspects.
GaN has become an important economic force in RF device technology. It is dividing up the market share of LDMOS in 4G applications. So with the increase in the complexity of mobile RF front-ends, has GaN RF devices been applied to terminal designs such as mobile phones?
He believes that there are currently two major challenges for GaN in mobile phones. One is the high cost of GaN, and the other is that the supply voltage of GaN is too high to be suitable for mobile phones. However, it is still possible to use GaN radio frequency devices in mobile phones in the future. In summary, with higher frequency density, higher cutoff frequency, and high temperature resistance, GaN can not only meet the needs of 5G RF front-end but also meet the needs of 5G small base stations.
From this point of view, the very good frequency characteristics of GaN radio frequency devices are indeed the best choice for 5G, but the other devices in the system do not have such good frequency characteristics to match. The advantages of GaN devices are currently not fully utilized. The more critical high-cost issue affects the popularization and application of GaN. As far as the application in mobile devices is concerned, the application of cost and voltage is not practical. However, David Shih emphasized that with the advancement of GaN technology, I believe In the 5G era, GaN will replace traditional semiconductor materials and get more extensive applications.
Qorvo is working to improve the performance of GaN-on-SiC products and has provided the industry's most versatile and innovative GaN-on-SiC product portfolio. For example, the recently introduced QPD1025 transistor is a truly disruptive product for the market. Compared with silicon-based LDMOS and silicon bipolar devices, QPD1025 not only has the same pulse power and duty cycle performance, but also has a significant improvement in efficiency. Qorvo introduced this high-power and high-efficiency solution in thermal management. No high-temperature materials such as diamonds are used in the process, which makes them highly cost-effective. Compared with LDMOS, the QPD1025's drain efficiency has been significantly improved and its efficiency is nearly 15 percentage points higher. This is true for IFF and avionics applications. It is very important.