CONNECTING THE COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTOR COMMUNITY
August / September 2010 Volume 16 Number 6
Editor-in-Chief David Ridsdale
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Consultant Editor Richard Stevenson PhD
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News Editor Dr.Su Westwater
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So it’s not surprising that several companies have launched electronic devices built with this wonder material over the last few years. Products have been released by firms founded solely to exploit the benefits of GaN, such as Nitronex; experts in GaAs microelectronics, such as TriQuint and RFMD, that have extended their product portfolios to encompass this material; and companies such as Cree, which has broadened GaN coverage into the RF domain. These companies don’t have this market all to themselves, however. The virtues of GaN are also attracting the attention of silicon chipmakers that want their cut, including International Rectifier (IR) and Integra Technologies, two companies featured in this issue.
IR, a company with almost 6000 employees and annual sales touching a billion dollars a year, launched its first GaN power devices this February. This firm’s tremendous financial clout has enabled it to develop a full production process in-house, including growth of GaN on silicon. Realizing high quality material on this platform is certainly not easy, due to the large differences in lattice constant and thermal expansion of these two materials, and if the process is not optimal strain and cracking result.
The challenge gets even tougher as the substrates get bigger. But so does the prize: A slash in manufacturing costs, particularly if these wafers can be processed on lines that were once used to churn out silicon chips.
IR has executed on these fronts, honing a 150 mm GaN-on-silicon process that delivers a high yield of rugged devices with incredibly low leakage currents.
The other interloper featured in this issue, Integra, is a much small firm that has chosen a different route for getting its first GaN products to market. This manufacturer of pulsed S-band transistors, which imports 100 mm GaN-on-silicon epiwafers from a Japanese supplier and processes them through its own line, released its first HEMTs at this summer’s MTT-S show. Although these chips are off the pace in the key metric of power density, the company claims that it will catch up fast, implementing relatively straightforward changes to its process, such as cutting gate length.
IR and Integra have given many III-V chipmakers a head start in exploiting GaN in RF and power devices, but the gap may not last that long. To watch the race unfold, stay tuned to Compound Semiconductor.
Richard Stevenson PhD Consultant Editor
August / September 2010
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 3
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GaN is an undoubtedly a great material. Devices sporting this semiconductor can handle extreme temperatures with aplomb while delivering incredibly high power densities at outstanding efficiencies.
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Watch out: silicon chipmakers are invading!
dr@angelbcl.co.uk
editorialview
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