/> The pioneering GaN-based power device technology platform is the result of five years of research and development by IR based on the company’s proprietary GaN-on-silicon epitaxial technology.

IR’s GaN-based power device technology platform enables revolutionary advancements in power conversion solutions. The portfolio of system solution products and related intellectual property (IP) extends far beyond leading-edge discrete power devices by effectively deploying the company’s 60-year heritage in power conversion expertise in a wide variety of applications including AC-DC power conversion, DC-DC power conversion, motor drives, lighting, high density audio and automotive systems.

The high throughput, 150mm GaN-on-Si epitaxy, together with subsequent device fabrication processes which are fully compatible with IR’s cost effective silicon manufacturing facilities, offers customers a world-class, commercially viable manufacturing platform for GaN-based power devices.

“This leading-edge GaN-based technology platform and IP portfolio extends IR’s leadership in power semiconductor devices and heralds a new era for power conversion, in line with our core mission to help our customers save energy,” said IR’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Oleg Khaykin.

“We fully anticipate the potential impact of this new device technology platform on the power conversion market to be at least as large as the introduction of the power HEXFET® by IR some 30 years ago,” he added.

Prototypes of several new GaN-based product platforms will be available to leading OEM customers at the Electronica tradeshow which takes place in Munich, November 11-14, 2008.

Khaykin continued: “We believe that early adopters will be those market segments and applications that will take full advantage of the revolutionary capability of transforming the value realization of the key features of power density, power conversion efficiency and cost”.