Navitas Moves Gen 5 GaNFast Devices onto GlobalFoundries’ 200 mm GaN Line

First wafers are scheduled to ship in September, moving the companies’ manufacturing agreement from development towards sampling—but qualification and volume-production details remain undisclosed.

Navitas Semiconductor says the first wafers for its fifth-generation GaNFast technology will ship from GlobalFoundries’ 200 mm GaN-on-silicon manufacturing line in Burlington, Vermont, during September.

Internal samples are scheduled for October, followed by samples for selected strategic customers before the end of 2026. The timetable represents a concrete manufacturing milestone following the long-term GaN development and production partnership announced by Navitas and GlobalFoundries in November 2025.

Navitas has adapted its Gen 5 GaNFast process and device architectures to GlobalFoundries’ 200 mm manufacturing platform. The initial product family is expected to include 650 V GaN FETs with typical on-resistance values of 11 mΩ, 18 mΩ, 50 mΩ, 120 mΩ and 150 mΩ.

The range suggests that Navitas intends to address several power levels and conversion stages rather than a single narrowly defined application. The company identifies AI infrastructure, high-performance computing, industrial electrification and national-security systems as target markets. It has not, however, announced a specific customer design win for the new GlobalFoundries-manufactured devices.

Moving the process onto a 200 mm GaN-on-silicon line is important because it links Navitas’ device designs to a larger-scale foundry manufacturing environment. Larger wafers can provide more die per manufacturing cycle, while silicon substrates allow GaN power devices to use elements of established semiconductor infrastructure. The commercial benefit will still depend on yield, process stability, usable die area and packaging costs, none of which were disclosed in the announcement.

Navitas describes GaNFast as encompassing both discrete GaN FETs and power ICs that can integrate functions including gate drive, control, sensing and protection. The current announcement does not specify which of those integrated functions will be included in the first Gen 5 products produced by GlobalFoundries. It also provides no new switching-loss, efficiency, thermal or reliability figures that would allow engineers to compare the generation with existing Navitas devices.

The distinction between the manufacturing stages is therefore significant. September’s scheduled shipments refer to wafers, followed by internal samples in October and strategic-customer samples later in the year. Navitas has not yet announced completed customer qualification, a general-availability date or the start of high-volume production.

That makes the development more substantial than another foundry-partnership announcement, but not yet evidence of a full production ramp. The next meaningful milestones will be packaged engineering samples, published electrical and reliability data, customer qualification and confirmed production availability.

For power-system designers, the manufacturing source may be relevant alongside device performance. A second industrialised GaN supply path can affect sourcing, lifecycle planning and qualification, particularly for infrastructure and defence programmes that require defined domestic production. Navitas and GlobalFoundries are positioning the Burlington line as a secure US manufacturing source, although the announcement does not provide capacity or supply-allocation figures.

The main news is thus not that the two companies plan to collaborate—they announced that in 2025—but that Navitas’ Gen 5 process has progressed to scheduled physical wafer output. Whether the transition produces competitive performance and production economics will become clearer only when qualified devices and full specifications are released.

Sources:

• Navitas Gen 5 GaNFast manufacturing announcement, 1 September 2026
• GlobalFoundries publication of the manufacturing update

• Original Navitas–GlobalFoundries partnership announcement, 20 November 2025