11 March 2015

ALLOS licences GaN-on-Si epi technology to Epistar

Engineering and consulting company ALLOS Semiconductors GmbH of Dresden, Germany says that its unique gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology has been licensed by Taiwan's Epistar Corp (the world's largest manufacturer of LED epiwafers and chips). The initial phases of the technology transfer project have already been concluded.

The technology transfer project has established ALLOS' 150mm and 200mm GaN-on-Si epiwafer process with what are reckoned to be excellent homogeneities on Epistar's epitaxial reactors. With full control gained over the GaN-on-Si technology during the project, Epistar is now able to integrate it with its own LED technology. Through the know-how transfer and GaN-on-Si technology training of its engineers, Epistar can then pursue further developments independently. The use of GaN-on-Si opens up the opportunity to use silicon foundries for processing the epiwafers.

Epistar has prior experience with the technology, based on templates supplied in the past by AZZURRO Semiconductors AG. Late last year, ALLOS acquired the technology, know-how and intellectual property of the former AZZURRO, which is now being made available along with the existing consulting and customized development services of ALLOS.

"Gaining full capability via a technology transfer in a very short period is a time- and cost-effective way to move ahead," says Epistar's president Dr M. J. Jou. "GaN-on-Si remains interesting for Epistar as there are advantages in a number of applications and the cost benefits of larger wafer sizes," he adds.

"Our combined licensing and technology transfer packages allow customers in both the LED and power semiconductor industries to kick-start their own GaN-on-Si programs successfully," says ALLOS' chief technology officer & co-founder Dr Atsushi Nishikawa. "This lets them achieve state-of-the-art results in months instead of trying to catch-up with the pioneers who are years and multi-million dollars of development spending ahead," he adds. Nishikawa sees that the opportunity for customers is to reduce not only cost and time-to-market but also the development and intellectual property risk by building their effort on ALLOS' proven GaN-on-Si platform and know-how.

See related items:

ALLOS offers AZZURRO patents and technology transfer and licencing

Tags: Azzurro GaN-on-Si Epistar LEDs

Visit: www.allos-semiconductors.com

Visit: www.epistar.com.tw