The winning entry paid homage to the gallium arsenide on which the company was founded.

The elements on the third and fifth columns of the periodic table, including nitrogen found in GaN, are known to have special conductive properties, great for producing compound semiconductors.

This core group met in a hotel room at the Greenwood Inn in Beaverton, Oregon, and decided that they were going to use their experience to start the company that would eventually become TriQuint.

The focus of the merged company was to produce components for mobile phones and other communication devices.

On September 4, 2007, TriQuint completed the purchase of Peak Devices Inc. in order to incorporate their work on wide band bandwidth into its products.

[14][15][16] The company settled an investor lawsuit in 2009 over allegations of improper backdating of stock options.

[17] TriQuint agreed to pay nearly $3 million in plaintiff's attorneys fees to settle the case, but maintained the company did nothing wrong.

Their chips were used in the manufacture of Apple's iPhone and iPad, Palm's Pre, HTC's Android G1, and Amazon's Kindle reader, among other consumer products.