AmpTech Opens for GaAs, InP Foundry Services

AmpTech Inc. said it is ready to do business as a foundry for RF and optoelectronic ICs. The company bought an existing fab last year and is in production with power amplifiers and other chips aimed at mobile wireless devices.

David Lammers, News Editor -- Semiconductor International, 7/31/2008 9:13:00 AM

AmpTech Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.) said it is opening its doors as a commercial foundry specializing in gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) processes aimed at RF IC and optoelectronic applications.

Formed in 2006 as an InP specialty design firm, AmpTech last year purchased a 100 mm wafer fab with 15,000 ft² of cleanroom space. Craig Farley, director of foundry services, said AmpTech now provides front-end circuit design support, wafer processing, back-end characterization, RF and DC production testing, and die separation. “Our production line includes redundancy in all key equipment to ensure a predictable material flow, and we offer fast turnaround options for prototyping,” he said.

Since the fourth quarter of 2007, AmpTech has been working with a limited set of customers to prove-out its processes. CEO Ray Milano said, “We have shipped more than 1.5 million tested parts to our customers,” with production-qualified processes for GaAs metal epitaxial semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) and indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs).

The MESFET process offers a linear gain of >85% of the device operating range, while the HBT process is characterized by breakdown voltages >25 V. The process modules have been adapted to manufacture optical devices, including GaAs and InP photodetectors.

Mark Singer, vice president of marketing, said AmpTech thus far has fabbed parts for companies that it has a close relationship with. “We have not, until this time, offered our fab capacity to new customers. But now, with the line proven and hundreds of thousands of finished tested parts rolling out the door, we are opening up the capacity to those seeking GaAs or InP foundry sources.”

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