Globalfoundries and Soitec have announced a multi-year supply agreement for 300mm radio frequency silicon-on-insulator (RF-SOI) wafers.

The agreement secures the supply of wafers that will allow GF to further expand its role in providing solutions for the next-generation mobile phone market, the foundry indicated.

GF continued that the primary driver of the wafer supply agreement is the growth of its most advanced RF-SOI solution, 8SW RF SOI. The leading 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. The new platform is using RF-SOI substrates developed by Soitec.

GF's 8SW RF-SOI customers include the top FEM providers for 5G sub-6 GHz smartphones.

"Eight out of 10 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," said Bami Bastani, senior VP and GM for mobile and wireless infrastructure at GF. "Securing this critical supply of wafers, from our longstanding partner Soitec, enables GF to meet the ever-growing demand for our 5G solutions."

"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," said Soitec COO Bernard Aspar. "We are very pleased to continue our established partnership with Globalfoundries through this multi-year agreement."

The new agreement builds on the strong partnership between GF and Soitec. 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. Manufactured in Dresden, Germany, GF's 22FDX platform has since realized US$4.5 billion in design wins with more than 350 million chips shipped to customers around the world, the foundry claimed.

By: DocMemory
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