Every major semiconductor material has gone through the same progression before reaching scale, beginning with initial development, followed by gradual maturation and ultimately deployment. Silicon did it first, then gallium arsenide (GaAs) and silicon germanium (SiGe) and now wide-bandgap materials are making that same climb.
Today, gallium nitride (GaN) is taking that step in electrical power processing specifically. What sets GaN apart is that its wide-bandgap properties and high electron mobility let it switch faster and run more efficiently than the materials it’s replacing, without giving up much on power density. This is already showing up in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find it, like the charger on your desk, motor drives inside robotics and the power supplies running AI servers.
On the other hand, the pace of adoption isn’t dictated solely by technology readiness especially during a time when rapid advancements in AI and electrification are putting an increased spotlight on speed. Traditional semiconductor development models where the foundry develops the platform and then customers engage often leads to fragmented workflows, delayed feedback and late-stage discoveries. These inefficiencies slow integration, increase risk, and call for a different approach to how devices move from development to application.
A short-loop approach to GaN development
To address this, GlobalFoundries has embraced a different approach: a short-loop development model that integrates technology development, design, validation, reliability and application evaluation into a tightly coupled, iterative cycle. Enabled in part by the acquisition of Tagore Technology in 2024, this model brings product design expertise into the heart of platform development, allowing teams to effectively “act as the customer” early in the cycle.
“As GaN moves from niche applications to mainstream adoption, speed and confidence become increasingly important,” said Amitava Das, VP Research & Development, Power at GF. “Our short-loop development model brings design, validation and reliability into a tightly integrated cycle allowing us to resolve challenges earlier and deliver a more mature, application-ready platform for our customers.”
What does this actually look like in practice? Our short-loop development model simulates real-world use cases and stress conditions during development to identify and resolve gaps early. That way when customers adopt the technology, they’re focused on driving differentiation rather than foundational challenges.
Closing the gap between wafer testing and real-world performance
This approach is reflected across multiple dimensions of development. For instance, while traditional wafer-level testing focuses on fundamental device parameters, real-world applications subject devices to complex conditions such as soft and hard switching. By bringing elements of these application-level stresses into wafer-level testing, feedback loops are significantly shortened allowing faster learning and iteration without waiting for full packaging cycles.
The same integrated approach also helps address one of GaN’s most important development challenges of reliability.
Advancing GaN reliability through integrated development
GaN presents a broader and less standardized set of reliability challenges. Here, the benefit of integrated development becomes clear. Internal teams with product-level experience can not only qualify devices against established standards but also develop targeted methodologies for addressing technology-specific concerns accelerating convergence in areas where industry consensus is still evolving.
Bringing real-world behavior into device modeling
Device modeling also becomes more representative of real-world performance. By building and packaging product-like implementations, engineers can evaluate devices under realistic operating conditions and identify parasitics, layout-driven variations and other effects much earlier in development.
A path forward for GaN
It’s important to note that this model is not about replacing the customer’s role in innovation but it’s about reducing the number of engineering tape-outs before production. Resolving these fundamental technology and integration challenges internally allows the platform to arrive in a more mature state which enables customers to focus their efforts on differentiated systems and application designs.
As GaN becomes more widely deployed, success will depend not only on the material itself but on the development models behind it. Integrating design, validation and application earlier in the process gives teams the speed and confidence to move new technologies into production more efficiently.
