There are so few repositories of Gallium Arsenide skills that the handful of players with interests in the ultra high-speed chip technology are having to turn to one or other of the two specialist US companies dedicated to Gallium Arsenide, Vitesse Semiconductor Corp and TriQuint Semiconductor Corp, the Beaverton, Oregon company created by a merger of the three smaller companies that were struggling to keep up with Vitesse. Keen to apply the fast technology in wireless and telecommunications products, and having done some work of its own in the area, AT&T Co’s AT&T Microelectronics has turned to TriQuint and negotiated a set of agreements involving the development, manufacture and marketing of the parts. The companies are jointly developing a process based on AT&T’s GaAs intellectual property that will become the base technology for higher power wireless and next generation fibre optic communication applications, and have agreed optional joint development of products and cross licensing of marketing rights to existing and future products in these markets. Specific financial terms were not disclosed, but AT&T will become a minority shareholder and have a seat on the TriQuint board, and it will maintain an on-going technical presence at TriQuint. The company says it has now been profitable for seven consecutive quarters and that turnover was $29m last calendar year.
