Transphorm, Inc. is an American semiconductor company focused on producing transistors made from

gallium nitride Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV af ...

(GaN) for use in switched-mode power supplies. The company was acquired by Renesas Electronics in 2024.

History

Transphorm was founded in February 2007 in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

. It is headquartered in

Goleta, California Goleta ( ; ; Spanish for "schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 200 ...

, close to the

University of California at Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joine ...

(UCSB) from which the company is an offshoot and where the co-founder and CTO, Umesh Mishra, is a professor. In 2011, Google Ventures invested $20 million into Transphorm. The money is to assist the companies development of power conversion technologies. They also received capital from

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

and others amounting to $18 million. In September 2012, Transphorm released the TPH2006PS which was the first

JEDEC The Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) Solid State Technology Association is a consortium of the semiconductor industry headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, Arlington, United States. It has over 300 members and is focused ...

qualified 600V HEMT in the industry. In November 2013, Transphorm teamed up with Fujitsu Semiconductor to integrate their GaN power devices into power supply businesses with Fujitsu as well as Fujitsu Semiconductor only taking minority equity positions. In 2015, they received a $70 million investment which was led by the global investment firm KKR. Transphorm went

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

by reversing merging with a

special-purpose acquisition company A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...

, Peninsula Acquisition Corporation, in February 2020. In August 2021, Transphorm acquired 100% interest in the AFSW wafer-fab facility from GaNovation, a manufacturer for high voltage GaNs. In March 2023, Transphorm released the first

(GaN) System-in-Package (SiP) together with Weltrend Semiconductor Inc.. The Weltrend SiP will be showcased by Transphorm at the 2023 Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC). Together with Yaskawa Electric, Transphorm has developed a new patented technology for GaN power transistors with a short circuit withstand time (SCWT) of 5 microseconds in August 2023. In January 2024, Renesas Electronics agreed to acquire Transphorm for $339 million. On June 20, 2024, it was announced that Renesas had completed the purchase of the company.

References

{{tech-company-stub Semiconductor companies of the United States Technology companies established in 2007 Special-purpose acquisition companies 2024 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies based in Santa Barbara County, California 2007 establishments in California Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies