Dive Brief:
- Texas Instruments expanded its internal manufacturing for gallium nitride semiconductors, a direct band chip often used in high-power electronics, at its facility in Aizu, Japan, according to an Oct. 24 press release.
- The Aizu factory is the chipmaker’s second facility to produce GaN semiconductors, with its first plant in Dallas. Together, the two facilities will allow Texas Instruments to quadruple production capacity for the chips, according to the release.
- The GaN production ramp-up also helps the company reach its goal to internally manufacture more than 95% across its silicon- and GaN-based technologies by 2030, Mohammad Yunus, Texas Instruments’ SVP of technology and manufacturing, said in the release.
Dive Insight:
Texas Instruments expanded its GaN manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand for GaN-based semiconductors, securing a supply for its customers, Yunus said in an email to Manufacturing Dive.
GaN is a substitute material for silicon semiconductors. GaN semiconductors are often used in high-power electronics because of their heat-resistant qualities compared to silicon-based chips.
GaN chips also provide more power in smaller spaces, such as in power adapters for laptops and mobile phones, as well as energy-efficient motors for heating and air conditioning systems and appliances, Texas Instruments said in the release.
The Aizu fab holds more than 90,000 square feet of cleanroom space, the chipmaker said. The facility, which the company acquired in 2010, manufactures a broad portfolio of Texas Instruments’ analog and embedded processing semiconductors on silicon-based technology.
The company’s GaN semiconductors fall under its analog business, which saw revenue decline 4% year over year to $3.2 million, according to Texas Instruments’ Q3 securities filing. Meanwhile, its embedded processing segment dropped 27% YOY to $653,000.
“At our Aizu fab, we took advantage of an opportunity to expand our existing space at a site with a great track record of quality, efficiency and innovation,” Yunus said in the email.
The growing demand for manufacturing information technology, telecommunications equipment and 5G is also driving the GaN market, according to market firm SNS Insider. The market company expects the GaN semiconductor market to reach $7.8 billion by 2032.
However, China leads in the GaN semiconductor market, according to a May Center for Strategic and International Studies article. China was a lead exporter of gallium in 2022, accounting for 98% of global production. Following China’s move to curb gallium exports in July 2023, more companies are pushing to diversify global production of the mineral.
Texas Instruments is not alone in expanding chip production in Japan. In February, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. opened a fab in the country’s Kumamoto region under a new subsidiary dubbed Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing. TSMC is also building a second facility in the region.
