Manufacturing GaN

Although the performance benefits of GaN are well documented, the manufacturability and cost benefits of GaN are more uncertain. SIGANTIC® -- heteroepitaxial growth of GaN on silicon -- is a revolutionary technology addressing both cost and manufacturability issues helping accelerate the acceptance of GaN for microelectronic and optoelectronic applications.

Since the 1960’s, III-V nitride researchers have attempted to evolve GaN technology from research status within university and government laboratories to commercial production viability. The major roadblock in the development of technology based on the III-V nitrides, particularly GaN-based devices, has been the lack of indigenous substrates on which to grow device-quality epitaxial films. This scarcity results in high per-unit costs associated with custom manufacturing of small wafers, thereby continuing to inhibit the commercial viability of GaN technology.

The commercial potential for “the final frontier of semiconductors” –- gallium nitride -- is limited by the current growth methodologies, which are based on smaller wafer sizes using difficult and expensive substrates. Until an alternative large wafer-format, high-yield, cost-effective growth technology is developed, GaN will continue to be used only in high brightness LEDs, laser diodes, military electronics and other applications that are currently less sensitive to unit-area cost of wafers.

Nitronex has proven through its SIGANTIC growth technology platform that, when considering the cost, size, quantity, crystal quality, processing flexibility and integration, silicon is the ideal platform for commercializing gallium nitride device technology.