About us

About Us

Innovating Wireless with GaN on Silicon Technology

Cutting Edge University Research Combined with Deep Semiconductor Industry Knowledge

Our Story

Finwave Semiconductor is a fabless semiconductor company that uses innovative transistor designs and breakthrough process technologies to unlock the full potential of Gallium Nitride (GaN). Founded by prominent MIT innovators and driven by industry leaders, Finwave is shaping the future through revolutionary advancements in energy efficiency and performance for mobile infrastructure, smartphones, medical devices, and cloud computing.

“Finwave is what happens when brilliant university research combines with accomplished industry professionals who have experience building companies and taking them from startup to IPO.”

JIM CABLE, PH.D.

RF Semiconductor Industry Executive

A Rich History of Innovation

Finwave traces its origins back to co-founder Professor Palacios’ lab at MIT, where Dr. Lu and fellow researchers pioneered groundbreaking innovations in GaN technology. As leaders in the field, both Prof. Palacios and Dr. Lu saw untapped potential in GaN semiconductors, believing they could surpass the limitations of conventional semiconductor technologies. With this vision, they founded Cambridge Electronics, Inc. in 2012 to bring these innovations to the market.

Over the past decade, a dedicated interdisciplinary team of engineers has worked tirelessly to mature the original MIT breakthroughs. They scaled wafer sizes from 1 cm² to today’s 8-inch wafers, leveraging silicon-compatible processes to bridge the gap to large-scale manufacturing. Through these efforts and strong supply-chain partnerships, our GaN innovations are now poised for widespread commercial adoption. In 2022, to mark our transition from stealth technology development to commercialization, we rebranded as Finwave.

And we’re just getting started. Thanks to our broad innovation pipeline, the manufacturing excellence of our supply chain, and close partnership with customers, Finwave is poised to deliver energy-efficient solutions that will shape a smarter, cooler, and more sustainable future.

Management Team

Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre

Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre was appointed CEO of Finwave Semiconductor in June 2023. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Nanometrics... CEO

Ian Warbrick

‍Ian Warbrick brings his successful track record leading large, medium and startup organizations to his role as Finwave’s COO. COO

Michael Guyonnet

Mr. Guyonnet joins Finwave from Gallium Semiconductors, a high power amplifier ODM he helped to set up before being eventually acquired by Guerrilla RF. VP Marketing

Matt East

Matt East has a career spanning over 37 years in the financial management of semiconductor businesses. CFO

Bin Lu

Dr. Bin Lu is co-founder of Finwave Semiconductor. He has made groundbreaking contributions to GaN-on-Si.. Co-Founder

Prof. Tomas Palacios

‍Tomás Palacios is a co-founder of Finwave and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Co-Founder

Board of Directors

Jennifer Uhrig

Jennifer Uhrig is Senior Managing Director at Fine Structure Ventures. Previously, Ms. Uhrig worked for over two decades in the Fidelity Growth.... Chair of the Board

Jim Mao

Jim is the founding and managing partner of Citta Capital, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley focused on early growth stage... Founder of Citta Capital

Mike Noonen

Mike Noonen is CEO of Swave Photonics and has 30 years of experience leading technology businesses resulting... CEO of Swave Photonics

Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre

Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre was appointed CEO of Finwave Semiconductor in June 2023. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Nanometrics. CEO

Prof. Tomas Palacios

‍Tomás Palacios is a co-founder of Finwave and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Co-Founder

Our Investors

Our Partners

Work At Finwave

At Finwave, we’re on a mission to revolutionize the semiconductor industry with cutting-edge Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. Our high-performance, ultra-efficient solutions are driving the next wave of innovation in RF for communications, defense, and industrial applications. But technology alone doesn’t change the world—people do. That’s why we’re looking for passionate, driven individuals to join our mission in San Diego, CA or Boston, MA.

Whether you’re an expert in semiconductor process and design, device architecture, materials science, test automation, or a business professional who thrives in a fast-paced environment—we want to hear from you. If you’re passionate about technology and want to make an impact, you’ll fit right in.

Ready to power the future with us?
Send us your resume at HR@finwavesemi.com

View Open Positions
Engineer working with measurement equipment.

Discover the Next-Generation of High-Performance Semiconductors

"Gallium Nitride is the ideal material for addressing the energy revolution for the 21st century."

Tomas Palacios, MIT professor and Finwave co-founder

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Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre 

CEO

Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre was appointed CEO of Finwave Semiconductor in June 2023. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Nanometrics, a leading provider of high-performance process control metrology and inspection systems used primarily in the fabrication of integrated circuits, sensors & discrete components.
 He served as CEO through the company’s merger with Rudolph Technologies to form Onto Innovation. Before that, Dr. Lesaicherre was CEO of Lumileds, a leading global light engine company, with revenues in excess of $2 billion, that supplies high-quality LED components to the lighting and consumer industries as well as LED and conventional lamps to the automotive industry.
Prior to that, Dr. Lesaicherre served in various Executive & Director roles at NXP and Philips Semiconductors.
Dr. Lesaicherre holds an MBA from INSEAD, and has MS and PhD degrees in Material Science from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP). He is a Board Leadership Fellow, Governance Fellow and Director Certified for NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) and an active member of NACD and SVDX (Silicon Valley Director’s Exchange).

Ian Warbrick

COO

‍Ian Warbrick brings his successful track record leading large, medium and startup organizations to his role as Finwave’s COO.

A senior executive with a broad range of expertise in operations and finance, Ian has served as a critical resource in rapid growth companies such as Peregrine Semiconductor (and its acquiring company, Murata) and International Rectifier.  He is experienced at managing growth through volatile semiconductor cycles, managing the development of new wafer technology, building high volume wafer fabrication facilities, leading operations through public listings and more.

Ian holds a BSC from Southampton University in the UK.

Michael Guyonnet

VP Marketing

Mr. Guyonnet joins Finwave from Gallium Semiconductors, a high power amplifier ODM he helped to set up before being eventually acquired by Guerrilla RF. He previously served in technical and marketing leadership roles at Renesas, Ampleon, MACOM and NXP. He began his career as a design and modeling engineer at Freescale, and received his PhD and Master’s degrees from Université de Limoges and a Bachelor’sdegree from Université d’Orléans.

Matt East

CFO

Matt East has a career spanning over 37 years in the financial management of semiconductor businesses. He has worked for Siliconix, JDSU, and Philips. The bulk of the years were spent with Philips Semiconductor (NXP) 23 Years and Lumileds 5 Years, both entities being subsidiaries of Philips.  Prior to Finwave, Matt was the CFO of Lumileds, a LED lighting company that was a spinoff from Philips Semiconductor. Prior to Lumileds, Matt held a variety of financial roles at Philips Semiconductor and subsequently NXP Semiconductor where he oversaw Business lines, Business Units, and Operational controller for several fabs.  Matt has a BS in Business Management and a Minor in Economics from San Jose State University.

Bin Lu

CTO & Co-Founder

Dr. Bin Lu is co-founder of Finwave Semiconductor. He has made groundbreaking contributions to GaN-on-Si technology, including advancements in GaN-on-Si breakdown and reliability mechanisms, the development of novel normally-off device structures, and pioneering work in GaN FinFET technology, for which Dr. Lu received the prestigious 2012 IEEE Electron Devices Society George Smith Award. He has authored over 22 peer-reviewed publications, and holds more than 22 issued patents related to GaN-on-Si technology. Dr. Lu earned his B.S. degree from Tsinghua University and his S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from MIT.

Prof. Tomas Palacios

Co-Founder

Tomás Palacios is a co-founder of Finwave and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Tomás has been working on GaN RF and power electronics since 1999, and his group has set new benchmarks for these devices numerous times.

Tomás’ work has been recognized with multiple awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers; the 2012 and 2019 IEEE George Smith Award; the NSF, ONR, and DARPA Young Faculty Awards; the Intel Outstanding Research Award, among many others.

Tomás received his Ph.D. from the University of California Santa Barbara, and his undergraduate degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). He is a Fellow of IEEE.

Jennifer Uhrig

Chair of the Board

Jennifer Uhrig is Senior Managing Director at Fine Structure Ventures. Previously, Ms. Uhrig worked for over two decades in the Fidelity Growth Group as an equity analyst and fund manager. In her portfolio manager assignments, Ms. Uhrig managed start-up products, including the Fidelity Mid-Cap Stock Fund and larger funds including the Blue Chip Growth Fund with assets of up to $38 billion. She has more than 35 years of investment experience and has heard over 20,000 company pitches.

Ms. Uhrig serves on the Board of Directors of portfolio companies Finwave Semiconductor, Pallidus Inc, Hoxton Farms and Feon Energy.

In addition to her assignment at Fine Structures, Ms. Uhrig is a Senior Advisor to Fidelity Management & Research Company. In this capacity, she serves on the Board of Directors of COLT Technology Services, where she chairs the Audit Committee, and on the Board of Directors of Geode Capital Management.  

Prior to joining Fidelity, Ms. Uhrig was a research associate for Fred Alger Management. 

Ms. Uhrig holds an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a B.A. in Government cum laude from Harvard College.

Jim Mao

Founder of Citta Capital

Jim is the founding and managing partner of Citta Capital, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley focused on early growth stage technology startups in Enterprise/SaaS, AI, cloud computing, and digital healthcare. Previously, he was a Partner at WestSummit Capital, investing in Enterprise, Cloud, Big Data, AI, robotics, and digital media. 

With extensive experience in startups and established companies, Jim has worked in Internet, mobile/wireless, digital media, telecom, semiconductor, and enterprise software industries, leading numerous successful investments and M&A transactions. 

Jim has MBA degree from the University of Southern California, Master degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and BA degree in Physics from the University of Waterloo.

Mike Noonen

CEO of Swave Photonics

Mike Noonen is CEO of Swave Photonics and has 30 years of experience leading technology businesses resulting in two IPOs and multiple acquisitions. Most recently he was the CEO of MixComm acquired by Sivers Semiconductor in early 2022. 

Noonen was the Chairman and co-founder of Silicon Catalyst, the World’s 1st semiconductor incubator and EE Times 2015 Start-up of the Year. He has advised and led turnarounds at numerous innovative private and public companies such as Ambiq Micro, SiFive, Silego, Mythic, Kilopass, and Rambus. Previously, Noonen was:

  • EVP, Global Products, Design, Sales, & Marketing at GlobalFoundries
  • EVP, Worldwide Sales & Marketing, at NXP Semiconductors 
  • SVP, Global Sales & Marketing at National Semiconductor

 

In 2013 he was elected to the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors. He holds a BSEE from Colorado State University and in 2012 was named the College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni of the Year.