- The primary driver of this wafer supply agreement is the growth of GF’s advanced RF-SOI solution, 8SW RF SOI
- This strategic agreement secures the supply of wafers that will allow GF to further expand its critical role in providing solutions for the next-generation mobile phone market
Globalfoundries and Soitec have announced a multi-year supply agreement for 300mm radio frequency silicon-on-insulator (RF-SOI) wafers. They said that this strategic agreement secures the supply of wafers that will allow GF to further expand its critical role in providing solutions for the next-generation mobile phone market.
Dr. Bami Bastani, senior vice president and general manager for Mobile and Wireless Infrastructure at GF said, “Eight out of ten smartphones on the market today include GLOBALFOUNDRIES manufactured silicon, and the demand for our differentiated RF solutions continues to skyrocket as the industry transitions to 5G. The 5G revolution would not be possible without GLOBALFOUNDRIES and our industry-leading specialty RF solutions. Securing this critical supply of wafers, from our longstanding partner Soitec, enables GF to meet the ever-growing demand for our 5G solutions.”
Advanced RF-SOI solution, 8SW RF SOI
The primary driver of this wafer supply agreement is the growth of GF’s advanced RF-SOI solution, 8SW RF SOI. The company claimed that the RF front-end-module (FEM) platform with best-in-class switches and low noise amplifiers, 8SW RF-SOI is optimized to deliver the differentiated combination of performance, power efficiency, and digital integration required by the designers and suppliers of current and future 4G LTE and sub-6 GHz 5G smartphones. GF’s 8SW RF-SOI customers include the top FEM providers for 5G sub-6 GHz smartphones.
Dr. Bernard Aspar, COO of Soitec said, “Our engineered substrates provide the foundation for manufacturing high-performance and high-reliability semiconductor devices required by the electronics industry. With our manufacturing facilities both in France and in Singapore, we have put in place the largest worldwide capacity with the most advanced engineered substrates to meet the needs of this fast-growing 5G market. We are very pleased to continue our established partnership with GLOBALFOUNDRIES through this multi-year agreement.”
In 2017, the two companies entered into a five-year supply agreement for fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) wafers for GF’s 22FDX platform. Being manufactured in Dresden, Germany, GF’s 22FDX platform has since realised $4.5 billion in design wins with more than 350 million chips shipped to customers around the world.
