Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.
I am the CEO of Finwave Semiconductor and joined the company in June 2023. I have close to 40 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, and I have worked in France, Japan and the United States. I have been in Silicon Valley for the last 27 years. After 14 years at Philips Semiconductors and NXP, rising up to the executive level, I was the CEO of Lumileds, one of the leading LED companies, for 5 years, and then the CEO of Nanometrics, a Nasdaq-listed semiconductor equipment company, for 2 years.
Finwave Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company, born out of MIT research, developing and commercializing proprietary GaN-on-Si technology for the RF communications market. Working with foundry partners in the U.S. and Taiwan, and utilizing the Finwave proprietary epitaxial structure, process technology and device architectures, we manufacture and commercialize high-power RF switches and RF power amplifiers for the cellular handset, telecom infrastructure and aerospace and defense markets, among others.
What was the most exciting high point of 2024 for your company?
The key highlight for Finwave Semiconductor in 2024 was the signing of a strategic technology development and licensing agreement with GlobalFoundries (GF), the world’s leading specialty foundry with a rich history of RF leadership. This partnership merges Finwave’s cutting-edge GaN-on-Si technology with GF’s US-based high-volume manufacturing capabilities and long legacy of RF innovation. The collaboration is focused on optimizing and scaling Finwave’s innovative enhancement-mode (E-mode) MISHEMT technology to volume production at GF’s 200mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont. Finwave’s advanced 200mm GaN-on-Si E-mode MISHEMT platform, which was presented in a technical paper at the CS Mantech industry conference in May 2024, offers exceptional RF performance, delivering excellent gain and efficiency at sub-5V voltages, while ensuring high uniformity across 200mm wafers. Leveraging Finwave’s technology, GF’s comprehensive 90RFGaN platform will deliver high-power density and efficiency, enabling high-performance, optimized devices that save on footprint and cost. This partnership presents a compelling solution for high-efficiency power amplifiers in applications where traditional GaAs and Si technologies fall short, including new higher frequency 5G FR2/FR3 bands, 6G and mmWave amplifiers, and high-power Wi-Fi 7 systems, where superior range and efficiency are critical.
What are the biggest challenges you are seeing in the industry?
As a startup company introducing products in a new and innovative technology (GaN-on-Si), the biggest challenge we face is the willingness of customers to accept these new solutions. Many potential customers for our technology and products tend to prefer using proven technologies, even with inferior performance, rather than adopt our innovative technology and higher performance products. We are partnering with distributors to market our innovative products to as many customers as possible and are starting to gain traction. The partnership we announced last year with GlobalFoundries has created more visibility for Finwave Semiconductor and for GaN-on Si as the promising technology for RF power amplifiers going forward, and our efforts are starting to bear fruit.
How is your company’s work addressing this biggest challenge?
With the evolution of RF communications systems to higher frequencies for Wifi-7 or 6G communications, there is a need for new solutions to replace several existing semiconductor technologies that are running out of steam as required frequencies increase to the 6 – 20 GHz range. With our 200mm GaN-on-Si low-voltage E-mode MISHEMT platform, we are developing the next generation of RF power amplifiers to replace GaAs HBTs, with a solution that can operate at higher frequencies, with higher power density and efficiency and higher linearity.
In the RF switch market, we are introducing high-power RF switches in the 10-40 W range, with very fast switching and settling times in the hundredths of nanoseconds, broadband operation and significant lower cost that GaN-on SiC solutions, for example.
What do you think the biggest growth area for 2025 will be, and why?
In the RF communications space, architectures are continuing to evolve. We see the adoption of multiple antennas in telecom infrastructure as a very favorable development, and with the power requirements for RF power amplifiers coming down, this should accelerate the adoption of GaN-on Si at the expense of much more expensive GaN-on-SiC solutions, that are more suitable for very high-power applications. With spending increasing in the aerospace and defense markets, we see the need for high-power RF switches increasing in application such as drones, radars and satellites.
How is your company’s work addressing this growth?
Since the first products we are bringing to market are our GaN-on-Si high-power RF switches, this is where we will experience the highest growth in 2025. We are working with a well-known distributor to market these products to a large array of customers in the telecom infrastructure and aerospace and defense markets. For one of our potential space customers, we recently demonstrated very good radiation hardness performance of our high-power RF switches, which saw no degradation in performance following exposure to a high level of radiation.
The second area of growth for Finwave Semiconductor in 2025 will be the introduction of our first high voltage GaN-on-Si RF power amplifiers for infrastructure applications.
What conferences did you attend in 2024 and how was the traffic?
Finwave Semiconductor participated in Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona in February 2024 and we were also present at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Washington, DC, in June 2024. We had a very busy MWC last year, with meetings with customers, potential partners, suppliers, the press and industry analysts. With the sampling of our first high-power RF switches, IMS was more focused on potential customers and partners. Traffic was very good at our booth, and we had very fruitful discussions with many interested parties.
Will you attend conferences in 2025? Same or more?
We will attend the same conferences this year, MWC in Barcelona in March 2025 and IMS in San Francisco in June 2025. At MWC 25, we will give progress updates on the transfer of our technology for handset Power Amplifiers to GlobalFoundries, as well as provide an update on the performance and availability of our first RF switches.
How do customers engage with your company?
Today, most of our customers engage with Finwave directly, either by meeting with us at conferences, through mutual contacts or by contacting us through our web site (https://finwavesemi.com). With the signing of a worldwide distribution agreement with one the leading RF distributors, we expect that customers will increasingly engage with our distribution partner, who has offices and sales representatives around the world.
Any final comments?
With our first products being qualified and released for sale, 2025 will be a very exciting year for Finwave Semiconductor. After more than 10 years of technology development, the company is evolving from a technology-focused company to a product and customer centric company, focusing on releasing products to market, engaging with customers and growing revenues.
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