Semiconductors for Communication and Sensing
on earth, in space, under the sea
Our Mission
To develop and bring to market products and value added services based on innovation in design and process technology on GaN and emerging semiconductor materials for RF electronics, power electronics, and photonics
Present-day civilization is dazzling for its 'smartness' - its 'smart cities', 'smart transportation', 'smart grid', 'e-commerce', and so on - all driven by electronic automation, control, communication, networking, and power management.
Semiconductors constitute the organs and tissues of 'electronic life forms', in other words they are the building blocks of all electronics. Thence their significance today; and the race amongst nations to secure a lead in semiconductor technology.
Silicon is the prototypical semiconductor material, almost synonymous with 'semiconductor' itself. Gallium nitride ('GaN', and its relatives in the nitride semiconductor family) has established itself as semiconductor number 2; starting with its enablement of blue and white LEDs that has led to the solid-state lighting revolution (and recognized with a Nobel Prize), and increasingly replacing silicon in select other applications in RF electronics and power electronics due to its superior material properties.
RF (radio-frequency) electronics is a key technology for mobile and space communication and radar-based sensing. The demand for ever smaller communication systems to transmit and receive ever bigger data in the era of AI translates into a requirement for rugged semiconductor RF devices. GaN-based devices score over traditional silicon on ruggedness; but their design and fabrication is complex and intricate.
R&D at IITB on GaN-based device design and fabrication ('fab') processes, supported by MeitY, DST, and ISRO, has resulted in RF power device technology with commercial readiness; and is paving the path for functional integration of communication, computing, and power management functions for future highly compact and rugged RF systems.
Founders & Vision
MatterWave was co-founded in 2024 by Prof. Dipankar Saha and Prof. Swaroop Ganguly.
They have been close collaborators ever since they joined IIT Bombay (IITB) in 2009, working together on multiple R&D projects, for industry, governmental and R&D organizations.
Prof. Dipankar Saha joined IITB after a PhD from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, followed by a stint at Intel. His group in IITB was the first in India to make a GaN high electron mobility transistor (the essential active element of GaN-based electronics) in 2010. Since then, he has driven this R&D program - with sustained support from MeitY and DST - and in tight partnership with ISRO, to mature GaN-based device technologies towards commercialization.
Prof. Swaroop Ganguly joined IITB after a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by R&D roles at Freescale Semiconductor, Tokyo Electron and IMEC. Here he has led the flagship nanoelectronics center, and the IITB Research Park.
View Research Publications:
📄 Research Publications by MatterWave Founders →Strategic Advisors
Kiran Deshpande has joined Matterwave Technologies as Strategic Advisor. Kiran brings with him the experience of building a DeepTech startup, as Co-founder of Mojo Networks - a company that invented enterprise WiFi security and built the world’s first cloud managed massively scalable WiFi. His stint at Tech Mahindra saw the company grow at top-line CAGR of 63% and bottomline CAGR of 110% over 5 and 1/2 years he was the CEO. He is founder director of 14Trees Foundation, past TiE Global Board member, TiE Pune past President and Charter Member. Kiran is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and BITS Pilani.
Mr. Swagatam Biswas is a Strategic Business Advisor to MatterWave. He was MD for Investment Banking at Ambit, Chief Strategy Officer at Enzen Global Solutions, and Head of India Sales at CLSA. He is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIT Calcutta.
Mr. Subhamoy Chatterjee is Strategic Business Advisor to MatterWave. He is Managing Partner of Affluence Consulting and Co-Founder of Centroid AI, was Head of Treasury Connect for Thomson Reuters in South Asia, Head of Treasury for Standard Chartered Bank in India. He is an alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and SP Jain Institute for Management and Research, Mumbai.
Mr. Apurba Bhattacharya is Strategic Scientific Advisor to MatterWave. He was with ISRO Space Applications Centre (SAC) for 30+ years, contributing to advanced communication, remote sensing and planetary missions, through the design and realization of earth stations and satellite payloads. He retired as Distinguished Scientist and Associate Director of SAC, and is now Professor of Practice at IIT Bombay. He is an alumnus of Jadavpur University.
Why GaN RF? Why MatterWave?
- Rugged semiconductor RF devices are in demand for next generation wireless / satellite communications in the era of Big Data / AI
- GaN-based devices score over traditional silicon on ruggedness; but their design and fabrication is complex and intricate.
- R&D at IITB on GaN device design and fab processes has resulted in RF power device technology with commercial readiness
- R&D at IITB is paving the path for functional integration of Communication, Compute, Power for future RF systems
- MatterWave Technologies was spun off to take GaN-based RF product and fab solutions to market.