GaAs/Si tandem cell efficiency record raised GaAs/Si tandem cell efficiency record raised

94 Pages·2017·42.73 MB·English

ISSN 1752-2935 (online)
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C O M P O U N D S & A D V A N C E D S I L I C O N
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Audi & Alta Devices to develop solar cells integrated into car roof
MACOM buys Luna HSOR business •II-VI buys Kaiam’s 6” UK fab
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contents
Editorial 4 semiconductorTODAY
Markets News 6 COMPOUNDS & ADVANCED SILICON
Compound semiconductor market to grow at 11.24% CAGR from
Vol. 12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017
$40.45bn in 2017 to $68.91bn by 2022•Photonic integrated circuit
market growing at 27.5% from $539m in 2017 to $1.8bn in 2022
Microelectronics News 8
Qorvo’s quarterly revenue down 8.3% year-on-year• TowerJazz
offering RF and high-performance analog manufacturing processes
for automotive devices
Wide-bandgap electronics News 14
Showa Denko acquiring SiC sublimation-recrystallization assets
from Nippon Steel•Microsemi awarded PowerAmerica contract to
speed SiC adoption •ARPA-E awards $30m for 21 CIRCUITS projects
•SUNY Poly wins ARPA-E grant to develop GaN-based power switches p15Japan’s National Institute for
Materials and processing equipment News 26 Materials Science has developed logic
Aachen Graphene & 2D-Materials Center launched•Oxford circuits with diamond-based MOSFETs
operating in both D- and E-modes.
Instruments boosting Asia-Pacific R&D center at Taiwan’s ITRI•
Aixtron’s first-half revenue doubles year-on-year
LED News 38
Cree’s quarterly revenue down 8% year-on-year •ROHM shrinks
two-color chip LED by 35% into 1608-size
Optoelectronics News 48
Luna selling High-Speed Optical Receivers business to MACOM•
CST Global leading Innovate UK’s DiLaN project•CST Global and
Glasgow University join forces to install and operate MOCVD system
Optical communications News 51
II-VI Inc buys Kaiam’s 6” fab in UK •LioniX & Heinrich Hertz
p34Oxford Instruments is boosting its
Institute intensify collaboration Asia-Pacific R&D center at Taiwan’s ITRI,
Photovoltaics News 60
signing an MOU to expand cooperation
Audi and Alta Devices to co-develop solar cells integrated into car roof to micro-LEDs & silicon photonics.
•CSEM, NREL & EPFL raise Si-based multi-junction solar cell record
Technology focus: Photovoltaics 66
Smart stacking III-V on crystal silicon solar cells
Technology focus: Lasers 68
Monolithic electrically injected microdisk lasers on silicon
Technology focus: Nitride LEDs 70
Indium gallium nitride LEDs on thin industry-spec silicon
Technology focus: Nitride materials 72
Finding the root of nanopipes in aluminium nitride on sapphire p38ROHM has shrunk a two-color
chip LED by 35% to fit the 1608-size
Technology focus: UV LEDs 74
form factor.
Indium tin oxide MOCVD for UV LEDs
Technology focus: Nitride materials 76 Cover: The USA’s
NREL and
Amber quantum wells on InGaN pseudo-substrate
Switzerland’s
Conference report: VLSI Symposium 78 CSEM and EPFL
have raised the
Pushing forward with compound semiconductor technologies
record one-sun
conversion efficiency
Technology focus: Nitride transistors 84
of III–V/Si silicon-
GaN implanted current-aperture vertical electron transistor based multi-junction solar cells to
32.8% for two junctions and 35.9% for
Suppliers’ Directory 86
three junctions . p61
Event Calendar and Advertisers’ Index 92
www.semiconductor-today.com semiconductorTODAYCompounds&AdvancedSilicon• Vol.12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017
4
editorial
Integrated developments
semiconductor
TODAY
On pages 78–83, we report on June’s 2017 Symposium on VLSI Technology
COMPOUNDS & ADVANCED SILICON
in Kyoto, Japan, focusing on work involving indium gallium arsenide
(InGaAs), particularly integrated with silicon substrates (targeting low-cost Editor
Mark Telford
mass production), as well as research on gallium nitride (GaN) devices for
Tel: [phone]
high-power switching applications. Cell: [phone]
Progress includes Singapore/MIT researchers achieving the first Fax:[phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
monolithic integration of InGaAs field-effect transistors (FETs) and
Commercial Director/Assistant Editor
GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well laser diodes on silicon through direct epitaxial
Darren Cummings
growth. Meanwhile, Lund University reported progress with increasing the
Tel: [phone]
on-current in vertical MOSFETs (as an alternative to traditional planar Cell:[phone]
devices at the 5nm technology node). This also represents the first demo- Fax:[phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
nstration of a non-planar III–V MOSFET on silicon achieving off-current
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as low as 1nA/μm. Belgium’s IMEC has demonstrated the first implant-free
Darren Cummings
In0.53Ga0.47As n-MOSFETs meeting the reliability targets of advanced Tel: [phone]
technology nodes for maximum overdrive voltage (gate-threshold) of 0.6V Cell:[phone]
Fax:[phone]
with equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 1.15nm. IMEC also notes that,
E-mail: [email protected]
as the processing of the interlayer/LaSiO /HfO gate stack is based on
x 2
Original designPaul Johnson
atomic layer deposition (ALD), it could be transferred to device architectures
www.higgs-boson.com
such as horizontal and vertical nanowires. IBM Research Zürich Lab
Semiconductor Todaycovers the
reported the first demonstration of a hybrid 3D 6T-SRAM memory utilizing
R&D and manufacturing of
three-dimensional monolithic (3DM) integration of InGaAs nFETs over compound semiconductor and
silicon CMOS, which promises not only dense digital circuits but also advanced silicon materials and devices
(e.g. GaAs, InP and SiGe wafers, chips
functional integration of RF-on-silicon.
and modules for microelectronic and
Also at the VLSI Symposium, Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University, optoelectronic devices such as RFICs,
Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of California Berkeley lasers and LEDs in wireless and optical
communications, etc).
reported a GaN MIS-HEMT transistor (grown on silicon) with high
threshold voltage (by using a HfZrO blocking layer) for enhancement-mode Regular issues contain:
2 ●news (funding, personnel, facilities,
operation.
technology, applications and markets);
The maturing of GaN transistor technology and its adoption — particularly ●feature articles (technology, markets,
for power switching applications — is indicated by GaN Systems enhancing regional profiles);
●conference reports;
its LTSpice model simulation tool for design engineers (see page 23).
●event calendar and event previews;
Meanwhile, in addition to granting State University of New York (SUNY) ●suppliers’ directory.
Polytechnic Institute $720,000 to develop more efficient GaN-based
Semiconductor Today(ISSN 1752-2935)
power switches as part of the PNDIODES program (page 20), the US is published free of subscription charge
Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy in a digital format 10 times per year by
Juno Publishing and Media Solutions Ltd,
(ARPA-E) has announced $30m in funding for 21 projects as part of the
Suite no. 133, 20 Winchcombe Street,
CIRCUITS program, which aims to speed the deployment of efficient, Cheltenham GL52 2LY, UK. See:
lightweight and reliable power converters based on wide-bandgap (WBG) www.semiconductor-today.com/subscribe.htm
semiconductor materials including gallium nitride and silicon carbide (SiC) © 2017 Juno Publishing and Media
instead of silicon (see page 18). CIRCUITS focuses on new circuit topologies Solutions Ltd.All rights reserved.
Semiconductor Todayand the editorial
and system designs, to build on earlier programs that focused on WBG
material contained within is the copyright
materials and devices. of Juno Publishing and Media Solutions Ltd.
The adoption of SiC in particular for power device applications such as Reproduction in whole or in part without
permission is forbidden. In most cases,
electric vehicles is driving developments such as Pallidus launching source
permission will be granted, if the author,
materials for SiC wafer growth (page 17) and Showa Denko acquiring magazine and publisher are acknowledged.
Nippon Steel’s assets for SiC wafer sublimation-recrystallization (page 15).
Disclaimer: Material published within
Also, Microsemi has become a member of the PowerAmerica consortium Semiconductor Todaydoes not necessarily
and — as part of the $70m DoE backing over five years to promote the reflect the views of the publisher or staff.
Juno Publishing and Media Solutions Ltd
adoption of SiC- and GaN-based components — has been awarded a
and its staff accept no responsibility for
contract to develop 1.7kV and 3.3kV SiC MOSFETs and SiC Schottky diodes opinions expressed, editorial errors and
(see page 16). damage/injury to property or persons as
a result of material published.
Mark Telford, Editor
semiconductorTODAYCompounds&AdvancedSilicon• Vol.12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017 www.semiconductor-today.com

6
news
Photonic integrated circuit market growing at 27.5%
CAGR from $539m in 2017 to $1.8bn in 2022
The global market for photonic 18.8% to $284m. years out. The lack of competition
integrated circuits (PICs) reached The optical signal processing market has created a static market, and
$426m in 2016, and is expected to is expected to grow at a CAGR of while companies with money can
rise at a compound annual growth 29.3% from $68m in 2017 to enter the field, it is difficult for
rate (CAGR) of 27.5% from $539m $246m in 2022. them to sustain their position. Also,
in 2017 to $1.8bn in 2022, Demand for the new technology is the lack of low-cost labor in the
according to BCC Research’s report being driven by the desire for high- USA is a major setback for small-
‘Silicon Photonics: Technologies and speed data transfer, including rapid and medium-size companies look-
Global Markets’, which covers mat- industrialization, last-mile connec- ing to manufacture PICs.
erials including indium phosphide tivity, and improved efficiency with The report notes that, while the
(InP), gallium arsenide (GaAs), real-time data availability. A newly industry faces the challenge of high
lithium niobate (LiNbO ), silicon, developed laser modulator can initial investment, application in
3
and silica-on-silicon, and spans encode optical data at the rate of various products ranging from the
monolithic integration, hybrid 40 billion bits per second. low frequency range to the high
integration and module integration. PIC makers leading the industry frequency range is increasing con-
Optical communications accounted include Infinera (12.3% market stantly. Prices for PICs are likely to
for the largest market share of share, $66.3m revenue), Huawei decline in the next five years due
$254m in 2016, and is expected to (9.9%, $53.4m), Broadcom (7.6%, largely to competition from India
continue to lead the market, grow- $41m), and Intel (6.7%, $36m). and China. At present, photonic
ing at a CAGR of 26.5% from California-based Infinera also offers integrated circuits are also being
$320m in 2017 to $1.4bn in 2022. optical networking systems based successfully integrated into small
In particular, increasing demand for on photonic integration technology. devices such as mobile devices and
high-speed communication with China-based Huawei is incorporat- radios, and they are expected to be
fewer disruptions is one of the ing photonic integrated circuits in used in high-end RF and sensing
major factors fueling the demand its optical networking systems. operations in the near future.
for photonic integrated circuits. Factors impacting growth Demand for photonic integrated
The market for PICs in optical The PIC industry is complex — circuits, particularly for use in
communication applications is led there are few manufacturing hubs smart gadgets, is expected to
by the Asia-Pacific region, which is and manufacturers require a work- increase significantly in the coming
expected to grow 41.2% from 2017 force with industry expertise. years both in the Asia-Pacific region
to $426m by 2022. North America’s Because the life cycle of these and in the USA, where regulatory
market share is expected to grow products is short, companies only changes will encourage small- and
22.6% and surpass the market consider manufacturing if replace- medium-size companies to expand.
share of Europe, which will grow by ment technology is at least five www.bccresearch.com
Compound semiconductor market to grow at 11.24%
CAGR from $40.452bn in 2017 to $68.915bn by 2022
The compound semiconductor market by the introduction of smartphones ization, especially in emerging
will rise at a CAGR of 11.24% from powered by gallium arsenide-based economies such as India, China
$40.452bn in 2017 to $68.915bn solar cells coupled with an increase and South Korea. Growing demand
by 2022, driven by next-generation in the number of smartphones and for power applications, coupled
5G technologies requiring greater other smart devices on the market. with developing wireless infrastruc-
speed and minimum latency, fore- Moreover, increasing adoption of ture, is expected to boost com-
casts a report from Knowledge LEDs in consumer electronics is pound semiconductor market
Sourcing Intelligence. expected to boost growth further. growth. North America is expected
Consumer electronics accounted Geographically, the Asia–Pacific to grow moderately, with high
for the most market share in 2016 region is expected to grow rapidly demand originating from the USA.
and is expected to be driven largely due to industrialization and urban- www.knowledge-sourcing.com
semiconductorTODAYCompounds&AdvancedSilicon• Vol. 12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017 www.semiconductor-today.com

8 News: Microelectronics
Qorvo’s quarterly revenue down 8.3% year-on-year,
but exceeding lowered guidance by $10m
Revenue to grow 27% in September quarter, driven by seasonal phone
launches, recovery in China, and strength in Infrastructure & Defense
Products
For fiscal first-quarter 2018 (ended ity. “Our customers are quickly fill- complex challenges faced by tele-
1 July 2017), Qorvo Inc of Greens- ing the Wi-Fi sales funnel and we com equipment manufacturers
boro, NC, USA (which provides core continue to expect robust growth in designing next-generation millime-
technologies and RF solutions for fiscal 2018,” says Bruggeworth. ter-wave systems,” says Brugge-
mobile, infrastructure and defense Defense & Aerospace revenue was worth. “In addition, we helped
applications) has reported revenue also particularly strong, with gal- advance the development of 5G
of $639.9m, down slightly on lium nitride (GaN) and bulk with a newly launched portfolio of
$642m last quarter and down 8.3% acoustic wave (BAW) both growing ultra-high-performance 28GHz
on $697.6m a year ago, but by more than 25% year-on-year. solutions. These hybrid solutions
exceeding the midpoint of the “We are experiencing significant draw upon Qorvo’s process
lowered $610–650m guidance growth with our ongoing multi-year expertise in both GaN-on-SiC and
by $9.9m. defense contracts, supporting gallium arsenide to deliver leading-
Growth was driven by record rev- programs like F-15, F-16 and the edge performance in miniaturized
enue for Infrastructure & Defense F-35,” says Bruggeworth. In partic- footprints,” he adds.
Products (IDP) of $184m, up 9% ular, revenue with Qorvo’s largest On a non-GAAP basis, gross mar-
sequentially and 22% year-on-year, defense customer more than dou- gin was 47.3%, down from 48.2%
due to stronger-than-expected bled year-on-year. a year ago but up from 46.2%
demand for defense, Wi-Fi, and Mobile Products (MP) revenue was last quarter and slightly above the
broader Internet of Things (IoT) in line with expectations at $456m, 47% guidance.
products. “Since repositioning IDP reflecting growth at Samsung and a Operating expenses were
to focus on secular high-growth modest demand recovery in China. $165.5m, up from $163.1m last
markets, we’ve seen eight consecu- Excluding Huawei (about 10% of quarter but cut from $168.6m a
tive quarters of strength and the mobile revenue), about 30% of year ago.
sales funnel continues to expand,” mobile revenue came from China Although down on $143.1m
notes president & CEO Bob Brugge- (up from 24% last quarter). ($1.08 per diluted share) a year
worth. “Our IDP product portfolio is “In Mobile Products, we’ve ago, net income was $113.9m
capturing diverse, high-growth secured designs for a broad suite of ($0.87 per diluted share, $0.07
opportunities with differentiated new products, and we’re excited over the midpoint of the
technologies, and this is driving about ongoing development pro- $0.70–0.90 guidance), up from
record bookings.” grams for marquee platforms,” $111.7m ($0.85 per diluted share)
In Wi-Fi, IDP grew more than says Bruggeworth. “We’re building last quarter.
50% year-on-year. During the our industry’s most highly integ- “The Qorvo team delivered June
quarter, IDP launched new BAW rated RF solutions, and we’re tar- quarter revenue and EPS at the
band-edge and coexistence Wi-Fi geting the most complex and most high end of our guidance, with con-
filters that enabled triple the range profitable opportunities,” he adds. tinued progress toward achieving
for smart home and enterprise Mobile Products also drove growth our margin targets,” says Brugge-
applications, delivering robust cov- in IoT, supporting a range of appli- worth.
erage across the entire allocated cations including automotive, asset Cash flow from operations was
spectrum and half the size of ear- tracking, meter reading, agricul- $104m, down seasonally but up
lier-generation solutions. IDP also tural, industrial, and even the large 75% on a year ago. Capital expen-
supported the transition to bicycle-sharing services in China diture (CapEx) was down sequen-
802.11ax as customers imple- (all with mobile M2M solutions). tially to $124m and will continue to
mented Qorvo’s recently released In base stations, Qorvo launched decline as Qorvo wraps up recent
portfolio of BAW filters and 2.4GHz what is claimed to be the first gal- expansions, tool conversions and
and 5GHz front-end modules lium nitride on silicon carbide (GaN- other investments to support future
(FEMs). The firm says that these on-SiC) front-end module for the growth.
newest Wi-Fi solutions provide the 39GHz frequency band in 5G infra- Overall, during the quarter, cash
high throughput and extreme ther- structure. “The module’s compact and cash equivalents fell from
mal efficiency that are critical to design integrates two powerful GaN $545.5m to $512.6m, as Qorvo
high-density 802 .11ax connectiv- MMICs and uniquely addresses the repurchased $32m of stock (and
semiconductorTODAYCompounds&AdvancedSilicon• Vol. 12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017 www.semiconductor-today.com
News: Microelectronics 9
intends to continue buying as part modest China recovery, and contin- ductivity efforts, and lower than
of an ongoing commitment to ued strength in IDP. Gross margin previously projected CapEx spend
return capital to shareholders). should be about 47.8%, up 50 and depreciation,” he adds.
On the design front, Qorvo has basis points. Diluted earnings per “Our highest-priority initiatives
been selected by the leading China- share should be $1.36–1.50. Oper- support our growth and margin tar-
based smartphone OEM to support ating expenses are forecast to gets, with an emphasis on BAW-
a marquee device ramping this fall remain flat sequentially as produc- based opportunities. We are
with power amplifiers, premium fil- tivity improvement are offset partly converting to larger-diameter
ters, high-performance switches, by R&D related to custom product wafers and we are shrinking die
and an envelope-tracking (ET) development for the firm’s largest sizes,” notes Bruggeworth. “It’s our
power management integrated cir- customer. intent to reduce BAW cost and
cuit (PMIC). The firm has also “Looking to the September quar- increase asset throughput and BAW
secured design wins for a broad ter and beyond, we’re confident in utilization as a primary driver of our
suite of BAW 5 products, including our content gains at large cus- gross margin performance. We've
quadplexers for carrier aggregation tomers and we expect mobile rev- launched multiple BAW 5-based
(CA), Wi-Fi Sense integrated front- enue will track the ramp profiles of discrete and integrated solutions.
end modules (iFEMs) for Oppo, marquee devices,” says Brugge- And we expect the market will con-
Xiaomi, LG, ZTE and Nokia, and a worth. tinue to require more BAW filters as
Wi-Fi coexistence filter for a mar- For the full fiscal year 2018, Qorvo consumers demand more mobile
quee smartphone platform. In expects revenue to strengthen data and as carriers work to
addition, Qorvo has helped to from the September quarter to the increase the capacity of their net-
enable a new entrant in the Android December quarter followed by a works,” he adds.
ecosystem, winning more than $12 slightly less-than-normal seasonal “In Mobile Products, we continue
of RF content in a smartphone decline in March. “We project dou- to be pleased with our progress on
expected to ship soon. ble-digit year-over-year growth in a development program with our
For the open market, Qorvo has the second half, with a stronger largest customer for a module that
launched a broad family of pre- China market, gains on new mobile combines multiple high-order BAW
mium BAW 5 filters and quadplex- platforms, and continued above- multiplexers,” says Bruggeworth.
ers that are critical for enabling the market IDP growth,” says chief “This is our single largest opportu-
continued proliferation of carrier financial officer Mark Murphy. “In nity for driving growth and utiliza-
aggregation and high-performance Mobile Products, we expect double- tion.”
Wi-Fi. It also began shipping its digit year-over-year growth in the Full-year operating expenses are
next-generation antenna tuners, second half of the fiscal year, forecasted to be down from fiscal
which reduce the complex design reflecting our current view of timing 2017, to 20–21% of sales) fiscal
challenges related to band prolifer- of program ramps and China mar- 2018. Qorvo has reduced its pro-
ation, the deployment of carrier ket dynamics,” adds Bruggeworth. jection for CapEx for the year from
aggregation, the implementation of “In IDP, we are projecting over about $400m to less than $300m
MIMO, and the popularity of new 15% full-year growth on strength (to under 10% of sales, an over
features like shrinking bezels and across multiple markets.” Overall, 800 basis point drop year-on-year)
dual cameras (which require the total full-year revenue is expected to take into account improvements
already limited board space avail- to grow by 4–5%. in fab yields, successful wafer size
able for antennas). “With our current top-line outlook conversions, progress on die shrink
For fiscal second-quarter 2018 (to and efforts to minimize inventories, programs, and a near-term focus
end-September 2017), Qorvo utilization rates are lower than on improving utilization. Combined
expects revenue to grow 27% expected,” says Murphy. “We still with operating cash flow, Qorvo
sequentially to $800–820m, see opportunities for gross margin expects this to lead to a tripling in
reflecting seasonal phone launches expansion through improving mix, free cash flow in fiscal 2018.
at the firm’s largest customer, a yield improvements and other pro- www.qorvo.com
Qorvo stockholders approve proposals at annual meeting
Qorvo says that all proposals were the compensation of the firm’s amended; and
approved at its 2017 annual meet- named executive officers; ● ratified the appointment of
ing of stockholders, who: ● reapproved the 2012 Stock KPMG LLP as Qorvo's independent
● elected 11 directors to serve a Incentive Plan, for purposes of registered public accounting firm
one-year term; Section 162(m) of the Internal for the fiscal year to end-March
● approved (on an advisory basis) Revenue Code of 1986, as 2018.
www.semiconductor-today.com semiconductorTODAYCompounds&AdvancedSilicon• Vol. 12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017
10 News: Microelectronics
Peregrine’s VPs of engineering & product marketing
Peregrine Semiconductor Corp of and his strong industry network in completed coursework in BiCMOS
San Diego, CA, USA — a fabless the wireless ecosystem will be a analog circuit design and advanced
provider of radio-frequency great asset for Peregrine.” bipolar analog integrated circuit
integrated circuits (RFICs) based An over 25-year industry veteran, design at Imperial College London.
on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) — Bargroff is an engineering leader Tomar is a 20-year industry
has appointed two semiconductor- and designer with a broad range of veteran with a track record in mar-
industry veterans as new execu- market and technology expertise keting and product management.
tives. Keith Bargroff has been including RF, analog and mixed-signal With a solid understanding of RF
promoted to serve as VP of engi- semiconductors, Internet of Things products, he has driven product
neering, and Sumit Tomar has been (IoT) and communications, energy execution from inception to produc-
hired as VP of product marketing. management and instrumentation tion for hundreds of market-shaping
Peregrine says that, since its equipment. Prior to Peregrine, he was products. From 2012 to 2016,
acquisition by Japan’s Murata in chief technology officer at Enverv, Tomar was general manager of
December 2014, it has experienced a fabless semiconductor company Qorvo’s wireless infrastructure
high growth in both employee that he co-founded to develop com- business unit. In addition, he has
headcount and new market oppor- munications system-on-chip (SoC) worked in RF product management
tunities. As the team and product solutions for the energy-management at Texas Instruments, Sierra Mono-
portfolio expanded, the firm has and IoT markets. Bargroff was also lithics and Skyworks. Product mar-
created two new senior leadership co-founder, principal engineer and keting experience spans 4G/5G
positions. director of technical strategy for RF smartphone and radio access net-
“Peregrine’s technology and prod- Magic, a fabless semiconductor works, automotive semiconductor,
uct portfolio has increased substan- company acquired by Entropic 802.11ax access points, SDN/NFV
tially, and we are continuing to hire Communications in 2007. He also for data centers, and machine
top-notch engineering talent world- has experience in management at learning and artificial intelligence
wide to support our aggressive Elektradyne, Wavetek and Datron for mobile edge networks. In 2016,
growth plans,” says chief operating Instruments and in engineering he co-founded C-RAN Inc, a startup
officer Dylan Kelly. “For the last two positions with IBM and Qualcomm. company that is developing a 5G
years, Keith has led Peregrine’s Bargroff has been granted 15 RF system prototype. Tomar holds
technology platforms department, patents and has over 22 pending a master of science degree in
and he has the ideal background patent applications. He earned a electrical engineering and has
and skill set to serve as our new bachelor’s degree in electronic and completed the Stanford executive
vice president of engineering,” he electrical engineering from Brunel management program.
adds. “Sumit’s proven track record University in London, and he www.psemi.com
Qorvo expands online tool suite with RF matching
calculator to simplify RF design
Qorvo has announced a free, down- carrier aggregation mobile devices. along with two instructional videos
loadable calculator that supports a These tools and all of Qorvo’s that provide an overview of the
wide range of RF matching tasks. design resources, such as videos, tool’s functionality, can be accessed
Qorvo MatchCalc allows RF engineers blogs, white papers, e-books, block on the MatchCalc download page.
to quickly match their system designs diagrams and brochures, are avail- “Our goal is to ease the RF design
without being connected to complex able at the Qorvo Design Hub. engineer’s job and help them get
simulation programs, speeding the MatchCalc is an intuitive set of basic products to market faster,” says
design process and reducing the RF design tools providing component Brandi Frye, corporate VP of market-
time to get new products to market. values for matching S1P or S2P files ing. “Qorvo’s Design Hub offers new
MatchCalc expands Qorvo’s library to the desired system or reference tools, e-books, blog posts and edu-
of tools that help design engineers in impedance. Smith Chart, Log Mag cational videos,” she adds. “We’re
mobile, infrastructure and defense and K-Plot matching functionality are passionate about partnering with
markets work faster and more effi- provided with real-time tuning. our customers to help them solve
ciently. University students also use MatchCalc frees RF designers to connectivity challenges, be it carrier
the tools for their design projects. work remotely and offers capabilities aggregation, IoT or the path to 5G.”
The library includes the Maximum not available in other downloadable www.qorvo.com/design-
Power Reduction tool, for designing tools, says Qorvo. The download, hub/design-tools/matchcalc
semiconductorTODAYCompounds&AdvancedSilicon• Vol. 12 • Issue 6 • July/August 2017 www.semiconductor-today.com