19 March 2012

Group4Lab contracts Alfred University to develop sacrificial substrates for GaN-on-diamond technology

Group4 Labs Inc of Freemont, CA, USA, which develops and supplies ‘extreme materials’ that aim to improve the performance of gallium nitride (GaN)-based devices, has contracted Alfred University (AU) researchers to develop a sacrificial substrate for diamond coatings to support GaN-on-diamond technology. S.K. Sundaram and Scott Misture, who are Inamori Professors of materials science in Alfred University’s Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering, will oversee the project, which aims to improve efficiencies in the lighting industry and advance the sensing and communication industries.

Misture and Sundaram will develop a substrate material for Group4 Lab’s technology, which combines diamond and semiconductors to extract heat rapidly, efficiently, passively, and cost-effectively.

According to Sundaram, the micron-sized diamond coating is first applied to a sacrificial substrate. When that is removed, the diamond coating can then serve as the substrate for further processing of the semiconductor coating.

Once completed, the technology can be used in applications such as solid-state lighting, sensing, and communication industries.

Misture and Sundaram believe that cordierite glass-ceramics are most suitable as a diamond coating substrate because the two materials are well matched with regard to thermal expansion as well as chemical and thermal stability under the processing conditions of interest to Group4 Labs. The sacrificial substrate must also be inexpensive because it is disposed of during processing.

Previously, diamond had been deposited on substrates with different thermal expansion coefficients, resulting in ‘mis-match failure and thermal cracking’, says Misture. The main challenge is matching the thermal expansion coefficients of the substrate and the coating. Misture and Sundaram hope to accomplish that by manipulating the glass chemistry and controlling a specific crystal phase’s crystallization.

Tags: Group4 Labs GaN-on-diamond

Visit: http://group4labs.com

Visit: www.alfed.edu