Early history
The company was founded in 1991 in Greensboro, North Carolina by William J. Pratt, Powell T. Seymour and Jerry D. Neal, all of whom were former employees of Analog Devices.[7] From the beginning, it was focused on designing RFIC products for the commercial wireless market.[7]
In 1992 RFMD licensed GaAs HBT (gallium arsenide heterojunction bipolar transistor) technology from space and defense contractor TRW Inc. From 1993 until RFMD built its own semiconductor fabrication plant in 1998, it used TRW as a contract manufacturer while TRW acquired a 10% ownership interest in the company.[7] GaAs HBT emerged as a leading technology for high-performance RF applications, such as power amplifiers and small signal devices used in cellular handsets.[7]
RFMD initially supplied ICs for Qualcomm's digital cell phones, and by 1998 had gained Samsung, Nokia, and LG as customers, as production continued to increase. At the end of fiscal year 1997, the company had 133 employees and revenues of $29 million.[7]
IPO and prominence
The IPO of the company on the NASDAQ stock market occurred on June 3, 1997 under the symbol RFMD.[8] At the time of the IPO, the company was a pioneer and leader in the use GaAs HBT process technology for commercial wireless applications, which had benefits in power efficiency, linearity, complexity and size, while also having expertise in older GaAs MESFET and silicon polar transistor process technology.[8]
To strengthen its position in silicon-based products, RFMD entered into an agreement with IBM to use its Blue Logic silicon process technology, and in 1999 gained access to IBM's silicon germanium foundry services.[7]
After construction of the company's own fabrication facilities was completed in 1998, its revenues for fiscal year 1999 ending March 27 more than tripled to $153 million, with net income of $20 million.[7]
Development of Polaris transceiver technology
In 2002, RFMD announced Polaris (Polaris Total Radio transceiver), a three IC solution aimed at GSM/GPRS/EDGE mobile phone architectures.[14] By adding transceiver technology, the company sought to increase its content in GSM/GPRS/EDGE handsets.[15]
Polaris chipsets were designed into handsets from Motorola and significantly contributed to revenue growth by 2005.[16] RFMD started high-volume shipments of Polaris 3 (a fully integrated quad-band EDGE RF front-end) to Nokia in the 2007.[17] However, as Motorola handset sales weakened in 2007, and a strategic shift towards a single-chip baseband/transceivers and away from RFMD's Polaris transceivers was evident at customers such as Motorola,[18]
Other developments
In 2001, RFMD started operation of an assembly and test facility in Beijing, China.[21] The facility was expanded several times.[22][23] In 2008 RFMD transferred all testing of high-volume cellular products to the facility.[24]
RFMD has been a pioneer in developing GaN (gallium nitride)-based products for military and commercial applications. Since 2004, the company has been awarded GaN R&D contracts from the U.S. government.[25] In 2013, it introduced products targeting Cable TV infrastructure.[26]
Acquisitions and mergers
In early 2001, RFMD bought RF Nitro Communications (RF Nitro)[30] that was founded in Charlotte, NC by Dr. James Shealy in 2000 using technology licensed from Cornell to produce on 100mm(4inch) wafers, advanced wide-band gap semiconductor materials and RFIC products (InGaP HBT, GaAs PHEMT, and GaN HEMT on both silicon carbide and sapphire substrates) typically implemented in laser diodes that were further incorporated into broadband wireless and fibre-optic end products.[31][32] One notable advantage at the time to the Cornell licensed technology was the ability to obtain high semiconductor growth rates at low temperatures.[33]
In late 2007, RFMD bought another RF component maker, Sirenza Microdevices, which was expected to allow RFMD to capitalize on its RF integration and systems-level design expertise from cellular applications and apply those capabilities across Sirenza's broad footprint in multiple high-growth RF markets, including broadband/CATV, wireless infrastructure, WiMAX and aerospace and defense.
