Texas Instruments (TI) announced that it will begin manufacturing gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors at its Aizu plant in Fukushima Prefecture, quadrupling its in-house manufacturing capacity for GaN-based semiconductors.
🟦 Texas Instruments Expands GaN Production at Aizu Plant
With the start of GaN power semiconductor manufacturing at its Aizu plant in Fukushima Prefecture, TI will quadruple its manufacturing capacity with its existing facility in Dallas, Texas, USA.
TI’s Aizu plant is FASL (Fujitsu AMD Semiconductor Ltd.), which was established in 1993 as a joint venture between AMD and Fujitsuis the origin. Initially, the company focused on flash memory manufacturing, and in 2003 it was transferred to the joint venture “Spansion” to manufacture NOR flash memory for mobile phones. Later, in 2009, Spansion Japan went bankrupt and was acquired by TI.
🟦Effects of 4 times the production capacity of GaN
By increasing its GaN manufacturing capacity, TI is helping to improve the performance requirements of modern semiconductors, such as energy efficiency and power density. In the robotics, server power supply, and renewable energy markets, GaN can reduce the size of motor drivers and increase switching frequencies, significantly improving the overall efficiency of the equipment. This is expected to lead to smaller, more efficient products, which will accelerate innovation across industries.
🟦Summary
Through the expansion of GaN semiconductor manufacturing at its Aizu plant, TI plans to strengthen its energy-efficient product portfolio and increase the percentage of GaN power semiconductors manufactured in-house to more than 95% by 2030.
TI is aiming to convert GaN to 300mm wafers and to have a withstand voltage of 900V, which shows that TI is taking the lead in GaN following SiC power semiconductors, which are currently attracting attention.