5G is driving up demand for both 300mm and 200mm capacity. Both are in short supply.
May. 17, 2018 –
Several foundries are expanding their fab capacities for RF SOI processes amid huge demand and shortages of this technology for smartphones.
A number of foundries are increasing their 200mm RF SOI fab capacities to meet soaring demand. Then, GlobalFoundries, TowerJazz, TSMC and UMC are expanding or bringing up RF SOI processes in 300mm fabs in an apparent race to garner the first wave of RF business for 5G, the next-generation wireless standard.
RF SOI is a specialized process used to make select RF chips, such as switch devices and antenna tuners, for smartphones and other products. RF SOI is the RF version of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, which is different than fully-depleted SOI (FD-SOI) for digital chips.