Repurposed Oudenaarde fab to become GaN epicenter

The semiconductor manufacturing site in Oudenaarde is starting a new chapter. Divested by previous owner Onsemi, an investment consortium united in Belgan Group is steering the 6-inch fab onto the path of the next big thing in power electronics: gallium nitride (GaN). “Our goal is to become Europe’s first GaN foundry qualified for automotive ICs,” says general manager Rob Willems of Belgan.

Currently a market no bigger than 100 million dollars, GaN has only taken a few nibbles out of the 50-billion-dollar global power electronics market that’s still dominated by silicon. The compound semiconductor, however, has some powerful aces up its sleeve. Compared to silicon, GaN enables higher energy efficiency, higher switching frequency and higher power density as well as smaller component footprints.