Sustainability as the purpose of a company

10.16.2023

By Zahid Ansari – VP of Operations, Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD)

In my view, clarity of purpose is one of the key differentiators of well-run companies. Purpose also enables a company to agree on a coherent and consistent set of values. Having a clear purpose in the early stages of a company and staying true to this purpose during scale-up enables alignment of the team and partners during critical stages of growth and builds the foundation for a stable and successful business in the long run. At Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD) we are committed to a greener world and a sustainable future with efficient power electronics. This means that sustainability is not just a part of our ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) policy: it is a core value of CGD and integral to our purpose. It is why most of my colleagues and I joined the company and what gives us our ongoing high motivation.

We are doing our part in the fight against Climate Change by increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy waste. I once calculated that a one percent energy saving at one of the new hyperscale data centres would be enough to power over a thousand European homes – and many more than that in parts of the world with lower average energy consumption. Adoption of CGD’s products in industrial applications and data centres, and longer term in electric vehicles, has a potential impact of eliminating the need for multiple new power plants. It will be a success when we can say that we contributed to saving much more energy than we and our families used in our lives.

Furthermore, GaN facilitates other savings too. Higher switching speed and improved efficiency enable both component and system size reduction. This means less plastic, copper, iron, tantalum, FR4 PCB material, etc. Higher efficiency due to lower switching losses and higher switching speeds also means that thermal management is less of a problem, so fewer fans and heatsinks are necessary. In addition to potential cost advantages, reducing materials consumption also means the product has a lower carbon footprint– since every gram of material has an energy cost – and reduces the impact of recycling and disposal at the end of life of products.

But as well as making products designed to address sustainability by enabling reduction of wasted energy, it is also important to address how products are produced. That means looking at your supply chain. CGD is a fabless company, and we are proud to be working with TSMC as the foundry partner for our ICeGaN™ products. TSMC is a semiconductor industry leader not just in manufacturing, but also in sustainability. It has made sustainability a central part of its business. The company publishes an annual sustainability report on the progress it has made, explaining its objectives, and stating how much of the energy it uses comes from renewable sources. It’s very detailed, down to the water consumption, and many other metrics. As an aside, at CGD, we are delighted to announce that our ICeGaN System-on-Chip (SoC) was awarded ‘Best Demo’ at the recent Innovation Zone at TSMC’s 2023 Europe Technology Symposium.

However, the GaN die itself is quite a small part of the overall CGD product, so it’s important to consider the whole supply chain, not just the fab. For packaging and testing, we have partnered with ASE, the world’s largest OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) company. ASE is also strongly committed to sustainability, and the ASE factory we are working with is certified to ISO 14001 and is a lead-free facility. Power devices – particularly those intended for some automotive and high-reliability applications – are still legally allowed to use lead solder for die attach, but all CGD products are lead-free.

Caring about sustainability and responsibility also means thinking about all your material choices. Due diligence must be applied to ensure that conflict minerals are not used, and to ensure compliance with RoHS regulations, which govern the use of substances that are hazardous to health. When I got into the business four decades ago, you had lead solder, you had halogens containing flame retardants in mould compounds, and there were various chemicals commonly used in PCB production that, over time came to be recognised as damaging to the atmosphere, to the environment and to health. Encouragingly, as we have learned about the impact of these materials, not only have more robust regulations come into force, but the recognition of the responsibility of businesses towards protection of the environment and health has improved.

Aligned with our focus on sustainability, the CGD team – across the whole company – chose to pursue and achieve ISO 14001 certification at an early stage, and long before it was expected by most of our customers. It made sense!

I hope that CGD can become recognised as a global leader in sustainability and social responsibility, and that we can influence and help other businesses on their sustainability journey – as they will help us on ours. It is also a personal hope of mine that we will one day reach a point where the responsibility of industries leads regulation on the environment, rather than just complying with requirements.