RF Micro Devices Inc. (Greensboro, NC), a provider of proprietary radio frequency integrated circuits for wireless communications applications, announced that it has successfully completed its first major customer qualification of its six-inch wafer manufacturing capabilities. RFMD is converting from four-inch to six-inch wafer manufacturing capacity at its gallium arsenide (GaAs) hetero-junction bipolar transistor fabrication facility located in Greensboro, NC.
Curt Barratt, division vice president of wafer fab operations of RF Micro Devices, said, "The migration to six-inch manufacturing represents the realization of a major initiative launched by RF Micro Devices to reduce manufacturing costs. Notably, the conversion to six-inch wafers will more than double the number of die per wafer without a significant increase in processing cost per wafer. Just as increased diameter wafers have been shown to reduce costs in the silicon industry, our GaAs manufacturing will benefit from the lower production costs available from six-inch GaAs wafers. We are pleased to have brought up this additional, lower-cost capacity, which we anticipate will be necessary in the future for us to meet increasing customer demand.”
