(Reuters) – Soitec will supply GlobalFoundries (GF) with its RF-SOI wafers for GF’s latest radio platform.

The French semiconductor manufacturer said it would provide 300mm RF-SOI wafers for GF’s radio solution, 9SW, which will be used to make future 5G and Wi-Fi chips.

“The transition from 5G to 5G-Advanced, and eventually 6G, requires ever-higher performance and energy efficiency, as well as increasing compactness for next-generation devices,” Soitec said in a statement.

The company, whose customers include TSMC, UMC, Sony, and STMicroelectronics, has faced sharp inventory corrections in a sluggish smartphone market.

Soitec said during its first-half earnings that it saw a rebound in the smartphone market lifting sales of its RF-SOI wafers, as orders have picked up from the low levels recorded in the first quarter of the year.

(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin. Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)