CompoundSemi Online - The Original Compound Semiconductor Industry Newspaper

October 4, 2006...If you're one of those who STILL thinks that compound semi devices for electronic applications aren't yet on a par with what the silicon world produces, you must be in the wired set, not wireless. Sure, we're not driving computers, except for optical mice and in some displays, but hey, computers are no longer ruling the world. Handheld devices are! (Also generically known as cellphones, mobile devices, personal digital assistants, etc...) From maxi's to mini's, through desktops to luggables to laptops, we're evolved now to handhelds, which most people seem to really like because they're so... mobile. They can be slipped into your pocket or purse like a wallet. They plop easily into and out of the little tray with your keys at the airport security stations. You can hook them up to all sorts of things, especially earpieces for hands free/safe use, and their digital capabilities provide you with everything from that PowerPoint presentation at the next meeting to emails, photography and the ability to make lunch. Well, they're not really auto-chefs yet, but they can remind you where and when to go to lunch... and with whom.

And guess what? About half the real estate in most handhelds is now made of compound semi materials. And guess what else? One company, RF Micro Devices, is in half of all cellphones now, shipping about 1 to 2 million GaAs parts per day. That's I billion (collectively) parts shipped per year! RF Micro Devices, or RFMD for short, is one of the mainstay companies in our beloved compound semi industry. It was one of the first to be included in my model CS/SSL Stock Portfolio, about which I routinely report. Rather than provide the usual roundup of all 13 in the portfolio, since the stock performance of all have remained fairly flat since my September update, I thought you might enjoy an overall update about one of the more outstanding portfolio performers, RFMD. Now at an impressive 3,000 employees, I've known of, tracked, and respected this company since its inception, which is why it's in the portfolio. To me, RFMD is ideally typical of the entrepreneurial spirit that has always been the backbone of the compound semi industry.

Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, that USA state that's knee-deep in outstanding leading edge compound semi technology, RFMD was cofounded in 1991 by William J. Pratt, Powell Seymour, and Jerry Neal. While you can read much of their history in Jerry's book, Fire in the Belly, what I remember most about RFMD's roots was that they were into commercial rollouts of GaAs parts from the get go, when most of the industry was surviving on DoD handouts. Around that timeframe, TRW was winding up their precedent-setting MBE-based work on the historic MIMIC program for the USA's Department of Defense (DOD), where we taxpayers paid through the nose for early deployment of HBT and HEMT MMICs (monolithic microwave integrated circuits). TRW, which has since become part of the even more huge military contractor, Northrop Grumman (the company that pioneered SiC, by the way), was hoarding their results and simply wasn't sharing with the commercial world. At the time this was a no-no at DOD. (At one point, the head of DARPA, Craig Fields, got fired for mentioning "dual use". Go figure.) At any rate, RFMD was recruited behind the DOD scenes by proponents of the dual use concept. Dual use, which lowers the overall cost of manufacturing... duh!. RFMD aimed to spin out the commercial results of TRW's MBE-based MMICs, a program overseen at TRW by my old friend, Dwight Streit. I'm sure Jerry's book clarifies the official side of the story.

The question everyone asked at the time was: Can MBE (vs. MOCVD) epiwafer tools produce the high volume output needed to truly commercialize HBTs? 15 years later, all one has to do is look at RFMD's track record. RFMD began fabbing HBTs based on a license from TRW in 1997. The first portion of the tech transfer gave RFMD the ability to grow epitaxial layers suitable for fabrication of HBTs using beryllium as the p-dopant for the HBT base layer. When made into devices, these did not fail for greater than 106 hours at 125°C junction temperature. The second portion of the technology was the fabrication processes necessary to successfully fabricate working devices. Prior to TRW developing the MBE process capable of producing reliable devices, AlGaAs HBTs were predominantly produced using MOCVD because MBE grown, Be doped HBTs had, according to RFMD, "abysmal reliability." In the late 1990s RFMD fought the perception that AlGaAs was unreliable and this continued with the onset of MOCVD grown InGaP. According to RFMD, InGaP had two distinct advantages over MOCVD grown AlGaAs. The first was because of the band structure, the temperature coefficient of beta was much lower, making the performance of HBTs fabricated on InGaP much less temperature dependent. The second was that carbon used as the base dopant did not poison InGaP; So, diffusion of carbon did not participate in device failure as it had in MOCVD AlGaAs. InGaP-based, MOCVD grown HBTs had up to two orders of magnitude better reliability than MOCVD grown AlGaAs.

Most of the industry assumed that these advantages applied to RFMD's MBE grown, Be doped AlGaAs HBT devices as well. RFMD was pushed by customers to look at InGaP, and they responded by doing so. The company is now on their fourth generation of MBE-based AlGaAs HBTs, and they are finishing the final qualification of their second generation of MOCVD-based InGaP HBTs. They report reliability, gain, efficiency, ruggedness and temperature performance data on both technologies and say that "there is evidently no clear and obvious winner between them." RFMD continues to match them as appropriate for each application consistent with what they call Optimum Technology Matching. RFMD remains committed to MBE because they say it can produce much better AlGaAs HBTs and pHEMT layers for power amplifiers and switch products than MOCVD. For this reason, they remain committed to MOCVD as the epitaxial growth technology of choice for their InGaP HBTs. If there is a clear winner between MBE and MOCVD, they're unaware of it and believe that both epitaxial growth technologies are suitable where appropriate. They diplomatically underscore that, "to simplify the discussion to attempt to declare a winner denies us of the richness of the capabilities available from both."

RFMD has often had an edge over their competitors, primarily because of their steady focus on RF (as in the real meaning of RF... radio frequency) devices and the company obviously believes in the future of handheld communications while depending heavily on today's proven, lower cost solutions. In a discussion with Brent Wilkins, RFMD's director of marketing, I was reminded that their edge is really their version of EDGE. EDGE is an acronym for "Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution". RFMD's EDGE products are like the workhorse of the cellphone business. If you don't already know about it (and want to), you can read all about EDGE on a site called 3G Americas via this link and about the GSM interface standard, of which EDGE is a part, via GSM World. In a nutshell, EDGE speeds things up and is the largest volume installed product line out there, because it's reliable and costs less. That's what all that MBE-based technology, via TRW... and the USA taxpayers... was all about. Reliable, low cost commercial communication components. Everyone likes cheap, but only if it works! As Brent underscores, EDGE is here and now. It plays a key role in the overall GSM network, which is the largest worldwide network. RFMD is the leader in EDGE radio solutions with over 50 million chipsets shipped to date. When I asked him what's changed over the years when trying to convince cellphone makers to accept compound semi parts, Brent (who's been there/sold that for decades) said... "Ten years ago it was a battle. Now they're expected."

Speaking of expectations and getting the inside edge on that next great compound combo, RFMD's gallium nitride (GaN) for electronic apps is starting to take off. Earlier this summer, (ref: news release) RFMD introduced and began sampling their first family of GaN high-power transistors to top-tier cellular infrastructure and WiMAX base station customers . This first GaN out the door represents RFMD's successful achievement of an ability to produce a baseline 0.5um GaN high-power transistor process. Having converted much of their 4 inch GaAs capacity to 6 inch at their Greensboro, North Carolina headquarters plant, RFMD now has applied the smaller manufacturing line, previously used for back-end processes such as metallization and lithography, to 3 inch GaN-on-SiC without the need for costly redevelopment. RFMD also gained GaN expertise with the acquisition of RF Nitro in 2001 (ref: Coverage). RFMD's Jeff Shealy (formerly of RF Nitro) will be giving an update at IOP's upcoming Key Conference during CS Week (Nov. 13th, Session 4) in San Antonio. RFMD is now looking to compete in the high-end cellular sector for final-stage, linearized amplifiers. The new family of GaN HEMT transistors features nine different products. Transistors for cellular applications include four HEMTs, the most powerful being a 120 W device, and on the WiMAX front, RFMD launched 50 W products for both the 2.5 and 3.5 GHz frequency bands. RFMD feels the time is now for GaN microelectronics, and that GaN provides RFMD with a technology roadmap toward developing and producing next-generation power products to meet the stringent cost goals that the wireless infrastructure market demands.

One of the reasons RFMD has been so successful is because it stays exceptionally well-connected, not only via its product lines ("connected"... get it?) but via its people. Bill Pratt, RFMD's co-founder, CTO, and chairman of their board of directors, also serves with Keith Evans on Kyma's board of directors. Kyma is one of the most promising GaN and AlN substrate suppliers, and... not-so-coincidently, it is also located in North Carolina. My good friend Keith Evans (who got his start improving MBE reactors when with the Air Force) is probably the most well connected wide bandgap expert in the compound semi industry. Bill Pratt's HBT patents are legendary and his personality and influence are a tribute to our industry. RFMD has also been well connected with the silicon shakers and movers. As recently announced, (ref: Our Coverage). RFMD is selling its interest in silicon-based Jazz Semiconductor (originally a spinout of Conexant along with Skyworks, which, coincidentally is now a competitor to RFMD). RFMD will continue to supply Jazz with EDGE transceivers. Jazz is soon to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Acquicor, a company formed by none other than apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. And those are the kind of connections (and "coincidences") that will likely provide RFMD even more of a leading edge in the future.

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