Smartphones are equipped with a set of chips that perform different functions. Among them, there is a semiconductor chip called a power amplifier that is responsible for conditioning and amplifying the signal through the antenna. Power efficiency in power amplifiers is a feature that is becoming more important as application makers offer increasingly power-intensive services.
Falcomm, a semiconductor startup based in Atlanta, Georgia, is working on a new type of power amplifier to reduce power consumption in devices ranging from Wi-Fi and satellites to consumer products like smartphones and the Internet of Things. The power amplifier, in the words of Falcomm co-founder and CEO Edgar Garay, is “the device that precedes the antenna in radio” and is “responsible for conditioning the signal and firing it through the antenna.”
“When you see your mobile phone and you see the signal bars, that’s basically how well your power amplifier is working. Anytime you have a wireless signal transmitting, you have a power amplifier,” he added. “Whether people are aware of it or not, in your daily life you use hundreds of Amplifiers”.
Falcomm makes it possible to transmit signals simultaneously at all different ends of a transistor, an active semiconductor element that is “the backbone of the modern electronic age,” Garay says. Doing this lowers the transistor’s “knee voltage,” enabling Falcomm power amplifiers to deliver efficiency levels of over 50% at 28 GHz compared to 25-35% for competitors.
The power amplifier market is massive – $23 billion according to Garay. Of course, a company has to start somewhere with a focus, which currently includes satellite companies, wireless infrastructure manufacturers and Wi-Fi OEMs.
“If you’re very successful and you’re able to capture 5 to 10 percent of that, you’re looking at a few billion dollars in terms of addressable market,” the founder said. Falcom is a so-called “fabless” chip company, meaning it contracts with foundries to manufacture its chips, and can potentially generate income by selling semiconductor products directly to customers or licensing its technology to manufacturers.
Investors showed confidence in Falcomm’s technology to increase the power of speakers. The startup, a Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 in 2023, today announces that it has signed a term sheet with Squadra Ventures and is set to close a $4 million round on September 22, with more details to come. It is the second round of equity financing since the company was spun off from Georgia Tech. Where Jaray completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering.
Slow innovation
Despite their crucial role in hardware, power amplifiers have seen limited technological advancement, partly due to the reluctance of established companies to disrupt the industry. Garay compared his startup’s potential impact on Qualcomm, Broadcom and Skyworks to what Tesla has done to the auto industry.
Falcom Team. Image credits: Valcom
“If you look at the auto industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there wasn’t a lot of innovation. They didn’t do anything to innovate because they controlled the supply chain. It took Tesla and some other startups pushing the status quo.
“I think the same thing will happen with semiconductors, especially now that we’ve got the chip law, we’re getting investor interest, we’re getting private capital going into semiconductor startups. It’s a very exciting moment to be working on semiconductor innovation.”
The costs of starting a semiconductor company also explain the industry’s slow progress. Even before Falcom became a commercial company, Georgia Tech spent $5 million to $6 million supporting the development of its technology for six years.
However, the lack of innovation is good news for Valcom, which believes it has little competition at the moment.
“One of the great things for us is that there hasn’t been a lot of innovation in terms of semiconductor companies. We’ve been using the same technology over and over again. The only thing that has improved over the last two decades is manufacturing processes, but not the architecture per se,” the founder explained. .
Falcomm plans to use proceeds from the new financing for hiring. It won’t be easy to find the right people quickly, but there is a large pool of talent in the semiconductor space that also wants to challenge the status quo, Garay suggested.
“You don’t often hear startups and semiconductors in the same sentence. Hiring the people we want to hire who are also excited to join a startup whose mission is to bring innovation to the world of semiconductors — I think that’s one of the challenges. But I think there are enough people Who don’t want to work for Apple, they don’t want to work for Qualcomm, they want to do something that’s meaningful and challenging.