IGaN and SilTerra demo D-MISHEMT using 200mm GaN-on-Si wafer on foundry CMOS process

Singapore-based IGSS GaN Pte Ltd (IGaN) - which provides proprietary gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) epitaxial wafer fabrication services for both power and radio frequency (RF) devices - and SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd of Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Malaysia (an 8-inch wafer foundry offering fabrication and design support services in CMOS logic, high-voltage, mixed-signal, RF, BCD, power and MEMS technologies) have announced results of their recent technology transfer partnership, demonstrating a breakdown voltage of 650V for a D-Mode MISHEMT device using a 200mm GaN-on-Si wafer on a CMOS-compatible fabrication process. The outcome of the exclusive collaboration is the transfer and establishment of a gold-free metallization and CMOS-compatible 200mm GaN-on-Si metal-insulator-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistor (MISHEMT) fabrication process in SilTerra.

“IGaN aims to offer an innovative one-stop solution, providing 100-200mm GaN-on-Si epiwafer and 200mm CMOS-friendly GaN fabrication processes,” says Raj Kumar, chairman & CEO of IGaN, which has exclusive rights to the GaN-on-Si intellectual property of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). “This will enable customers in the power semiconductor community currently offering silicon-based power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) to leapfrog into GaN technology devices, unlocking access to the huge opportunity of the US$12bn power device market using GaN technology,” he adds. “We are already engaged in positive discussions with other customers enthusiastic about the potential of our platform, keen to accelerate their access into the rapidly growing GaN market, as our new partnership with SilTerra enables mass production of this powerful new technology in early 2019.”

“With our close partnership with IGaN, SilTerra is committed to deliver the best-yielding process and capacity assurance to fulfil our mutual customers’ business expectations,” comments SilTerra’s Firdaus Abdullah.

GaN devices are used for high-power-density wireless power transfer, allowing higher server power - a capability recently demonstrated at March’s IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference & Exposition (APEC 2018) in San Antonio, TX, USA. Using GaN technology, a high-density on-board charger (OBC) for electric vehicles delivered a three-fold increase in power density at 4kW per litre, compared with a silicon-based charger at 1.3kW per litre. Further demonstrations revealed that GaN transistors can enable wireless charging to be increased from 100W to 1.5kW.

IGaN says that gallium nitride technology can unlock the potential for wireless charging applications far beyond low-power applications such as cell phones and laptops. It also enables greater energy savings and increased power density in data centres, which significantly reduces operating expenditure (OpEx), capital expenditure (CapEx) and total cost of ownership (TCO), with a 50% power density increase achievable utilizing a power supply of the same size.

IGaN and SilTerra are together offering an accelerator to spur the conversion of pure silicon and compound-based technologies into GaN-on-Si. The firms claim that this can favourably impact the bottom line and long-term business competitiveness of both power and RF semiconductor companies that adopt the technology. The efficiency performance figures of GaN-on-Si also show its further potential to minimize power conversion losses, they add.

Tags: GaN-on-Si

Visit: www.igssgan.com

Visit: www.silterra.com