All 400 employees remain on board and dozens more jobs will be added at the Oudenaarde site in the coming year.
In time, the BelGaN site in Oudenaarde wants to be the heart of a GaN Valley in Europe. What is GaN you say? GaN semiconductors are Gallium nitride chips that are already making numerous chargers for smartphones, tablets and laptops a lot smaller today. There is also the promise that the technology could increase the range of hybrid and fully electric cars by a fifth.
Looking at data centers and 5G base stations, using GaN instead of silicon chips could reduce energy consumption by 20 to 30 percent.
The global market for GaN chips is currently estimated at about 100 million euros. “Analysts expect that in 5 years, a climb to more than 1 billion euros per year is realistic,” BelGaN said.
From Silicon to GaN
Within a few years, the BelGaN site in Oudenaarde should be transformed from a Silicon site to an innovative GaN site. This will give an innovation and growth impulse to the region and provide both short-term and long-term additional employment with numerous career opportunities in R&D, operations and other departments.
Rob Willems, General Manager and VP Operations of BelGaN said, “This is a new and exciting chapter in the history of our Belgian semiconductor plant. GaN chips are becoming a gamechanger in the electric car industry and many other sectors, an important step toward a more sustainable future.”
Dr. Alan Zhou, CEO of BelGaN: “I see the opportunity of a lifetime to build a ‘GaN-Valley’ from Europe by leveraging imec’s innovations in next-generation GaN-based electrical systems. This together with the BelGaN team that has more than 10 years of experience in the development of GaN technologies and has more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing automotive semiconductors.”