RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD) announced RFMD® has received its first purchase order from a tier-one wireless base station original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for a product featuring RFMD's state-of-the-art gallium nitride (GaN) process technology. The purchase order is for RFMD's RFG1M09180 180 W GaN broadband power transistor (BPT) and is in support of the global expansion of 4G wireless networks.

RFMD's RFG1M09180 BPT supports LTE at 750 to 800 MHz, 3GPP/IS95 at 865 to 895 MHz and multi-carrier GSM at 930 to 960 MHz, thereby enabling cost-effective and energy-efficient support of multi-standard base stations. The RFG1M09180 is part of the RFG1M power device family, which addresses power requirements from 30 to 360 W, offers wider bandwidth than incumbent LDMOS technology and supports wireless communication bands from 0.7 to 3.8 GHz. The RFG1M power device family also features internal matching and is optimized for high-efficiency techniques, such as Doherty and envelope tracking.

Jeff Shealy, VP and General Manager of RFMD's Defense and Power business unit, said, "We are pleased to announce our first GaN purchase order from this tier-one wireless base station OEM. The superior combination of output power, bandwidth and efficiency make RFMD's GaN a compelling process technology and the RFG1M09180 a compelling product for next-generation base station applications."

Bob Van Buskirk, President of RFMD's Multi-Market Product Group (MPG), added, "RFMD is excited to support the development of next-generation base station transmit architectures. Given the superior performance characteristics of our innovative GaN technology, we are enthusiastic about our overall growth opportunities, and we are actively targeting the base station HPA market, which we expect will represent approximately half of the high-power RF market within the next three years."

RFMD's state-of-the-art GaN process technology delivers superior RF power per square millimeter and superior RF conversion efficiency, versus current semiconductor technologies, and RFMD expects its GaN technology will become a disruptive technology across a broad range of commercial and defense markets. In wireless base station applications, RFMD's GaN HPAs deliver industry-leading power performance at significantly reduced energy requirements. This satisfies the increasing focus on "green" technologies by enabling more efficient operation of network equipment and by reducing network-related energy costs.