Intersil buys Great Wall

Intersil has bought Arizona mosfet specialist Great Wall Semiconductor (GWS) for $19 million. A further $4 million is payable if performance metrics are met.

GWS was founded in 2002, has 10 employees and 22 patents related to lateral low-voltage power mosfet technology which allows low-gate charge power mosfets to be made on a CMOS process.

‘GWS’s design team brings valuable experience leveraging advanced design and process technology to enable power efficiency gains and footprint reduction in complex power systems,’ says Intersil.

“This small but experienced team will be a great asset as we continue to expand our power management capabilities,” says Intersil’s Mark Downing.

“GWS has differentiated itself through expertise in lateral power mosfet device and processing technology combined with miniature chipscale packaging,“ says Sam Anderson, CEO of GWS, “we have developed important intellectual property that enables energy savings and environmental progress.”

The basics of the firm’s technology is described in this lateral mosfet conference paper from APEC.