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Infineon Technologies’ empire keeps growing with GaN System acquisition

Infineon Technologies continues to increase its share of the power semiconductor empire by acquiring GaN Systems for a GaN industry record $830 million (Related press release).

Infineon Technologies keeps working strategically to remain the leader in power semiconductors. It was the first to have a 12-inch manufacturing line and has been among the first to expand its lines, as evidenced by the recent announcement of a 5-billion-euro investment to expand its 12-inch Dresden site.

Ana Villamor and Taha Ayari, both analysts at Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group provide insight today, with this snapshot, of the context behind this acquisition while taking a step back to analyze Infineon Technologies’ announcement and possible impacts on the power GaN industry.

This analysis makes use of market trends, market figures, and technology insights extracted from the following products: Status of the Power Electronics IndustryPower GaN (2023 edition coming soon – More info) – Power SiC/GaN CS Market Monitor.

Following its International Rectifier acquisition covering Power GaN activity in 2015, and the Siltectra acquisition for SiC wafer technology in 2018, Infineon Technologies acquired Cypress Semiconductor to complete its portfolio of advanced technology solutions. In 2021, the Villach 12-inch manufacturing site was finished and ready to ramp up. Since 2022, the company has also been converting its Villach manufacturing plant for 8-inch SiC and GaN chip production and invested more than $2 billion to expand its Malaysian fab for SiC and GaN materials. Moreover, they announced an investment in a new packaging site for module manufacturing in Cegléd and the expansion of their back-end site in Melaka.

It is, therefore, not surprising that they continue reinforcing their portfolio and know-how with the GaN Systems acquisition by combining the different business models and manufacturing capacity. The transaction is valued at $830M, the highest deal in the GaN industry so far! This acquisition will accelerate Infineon’s roadmap for the adoption of GaN in a wide range of markets, especially in high-power applications and the automotive industry. GaN Systems is well known for its extensive experience in developing automotive-qualified GaN devices and related systems.

What will be next? And who will follow? What are other power companies’ strategies? Yole Group and its analysts invite you to follow the power GaN industry with major news, dedicated events, and analyses throughout the year.

Stay tuned!

About the authors

Ana_VILLAMOR-AVI_YINT

Ana Villamor, Ph.D., is a Team Lead Analyst for power electronics activities within the Power and Wireless division at Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group.

Ana manages an international team and develops their technical expertise and market know-how.

In addition, she actively supports and assists in developing a dedicated collection of market & technology reports and custom consulting projects.

Prior to Yole, Ana was involved in a high added-value collaboration between the CNM research center and ON Semiconductor, a leading power electronics company. During that partnership and two years as a silicon development engineer, Dr. Villamor has acquired extensive technical expertise and in-depth knowledge of the power electronics industry.

Ana has authored and co-authored several papers, as well as a patent.

She holds a Ph.D. in Electronics and an electronics engineering degree and a master’s degree in Micro and Nano Electronics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain).

Taha_AYARI-TAY_YSP

Taha Ayari, Ph.D., is a Technology & Market Analyst, Compound Semiconductor and Emerging Substrates at Yole Intelligence, part of Yole Group. As a member of the Power Electronics & Wireless division at Yole, Taha’s expertise is mainly dedicated to power, RF, and optoelectronics. He is fully engaged in developing technology and market reports as well as custom projects.

Taha has 2 years experience as a Technology & Cost Analyst at Yole SystemPlus, part of Yole Group, where he focuses on developing compound semiconductor reverse engineering & costing analyses.

Prior to Yole, Taha was a research engineer at Georgia Tech Lorraine (Metz, France). He published numerous papers with a particular focus on III-N materials.

Taha holds an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, USA).


Source: www.yolegroup.com

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