24 January 2017

EpiGaN named to 2017 Global Cleantech 100

At the 15th annual Cleantech Forum San Francisco, EpiGaN nv of Hasselt, near Antwerp, Belgium, which supplies gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) and gallium nitride on silicon carbide (GaN-on-SiC) epitaxial wafers for power switching and RF devices, has been named again among the 2017 Global Cleantech 100, produced by San Francisco-based Cleantech Group (CTG).

Featuring companies positioned to solve future clean technology challenges, the Global Cleantech 100 lists private companies with the highest potential for a market impact within a 5-10 year timeframe. The list is collated by combining proprietary CTG research data with weighted qualitative judgments from hundreds of nominations and an 86-person expert panel.

Incorporated in 2010, EpiGaN was founded by chief executive officer Dr Marianne Germain, chief technology officer Dr Joff Derluyn and chief operating officer Dr Stefan Degroote as a spin-off of nanoelectronics research center Imec of Leuven, Belgium. The founders jointly developed GaN-on-Si technology at Imec, part of which has been licensed to EpiGaN. EpiGaN was joined in 2011 by start-up investment firms Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Capricorn CleanTech Fund and LRM (to enable the installation of its wafer production facility) and in August 2016 by ACAPITAL. In January 2016, the firm signed a global representation agreement for its 150mm and 200mm GaN-on-Si power semiconductor product solutions with silicon substrate maker SunEdison Semiconductor of St. Peters, MO, USA.

"Innovating with GaN technology enables drastic energy savings, as well as volume and weight reductions of power systems, enabling miniaturization and significant cost reduction in areas where traditional silicon solutions cannot meet current or future system requirements," says EpiGaN's CEO & co-founder Dr Marianne Germain. "GaN applications are very numerous, ranging from power supply for IT systems to data servers, motor drives or solar inverters, or even wireless charging. EpiGaN's product portfolio covers state-of-the-art solutions for low-loss power switching, radio-frequency/mobile communication power and sensor applications," she adds. "At our production facility in Hasselt (Belgium), we have developed unique GaN-on-Si and GaN-on-SiC technologies, which are more robust and enable a significant increase of the number of chips per wafer. Already available for wafer diameters up to 200mm, our solutions offer the superior material quality and necessary cost-reduction path for expanding the market adoption of GaN technology to more applications," Germain reckons.

To qualify for the CTG list, companies must be independent, for-profit cleantech companies that are not traded on any major stock exchange. This year, a record number of nominations were received (9900 companies from 77 countries). They were weighted and scored to produce a short list of 325. These nominees were reviewed by CTG's expert panel, resulting in a finalized list of 100 companies from 17 countries.

The 86-member CTG expert panel was drawn equally from leading financial investors and representatives of multi-national corporations and industrials active in technology and innovation scouting across Asia, Europe, and North America. The diversity of panelists results in a list of companies that command an expansive base of support from many important players within the global cleantech ecosystem, says CTG.

"The purpose of the Global Cleantech 100 program is to act as our barometric read on how the facets that contribute to the emergence and maturing of an innovation theme like cleantech are changing year on year," says Cleantech Group's CEO Richard Youngman. "Now in its 8th year, we see more signals of the mainstreaming of clean technologies, sustainability, and resource efficiency towards the point where this is just the normal way of doing business."

See related items:

EpiGaN nominated for EU Innovation Radar Prize

EpiGaN's production facility certified as compliant to ISO9001:2015

EpiGaN's board gains Imec veteran to advise on expansion of GaN-on-Si epi product portfolio and services

EpiGaN wins Global Cleantech Cluster Association's Later Stage Award

EpiGaN named in Global Cleantech 100's inaugural Ones to Watch list

Tags: EpiGaN GaN-on-Si

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