Researchers in China and Japan have demonstrated a monolithic gallium nitride (GaN) optoelectronic system on silicon (Si) substrate consisting of a transmitter, modulator, waveguide, beam splitter, receivers and monitor [Hao Zhang et al, Appl. Phys. Lett., v121, p181103, 2022].   The team from China’s Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and Zhengzhou University and Japan’s Nagoya University are seeking to promote optoelectronic systems with low power consumption while using monolithic integration on silicon to reduce material, pr...

BluGlass has signed a paid development agreement with Ganvix, Inc - a leading developer of GaN Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) Ganvix has selected BluGlass’ RPCVD technology to enable the development of green VCSELs for advanced applications    Global semiconductor developer BluGlass Limited (ASX: BLG) has entered into a collaboration agreement with Ganvix, Inc. to develop cutting-edge gallium nitride (GaN) vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for green wavelengths (515nm-525nm). Ganvi...

GaN, the “Black Technology” in the compound semiconductor market, can largely reduce product size thanks to its high power and high density. The compound also maintains excellent properties under high-frequency, high-temperature and high-voltage circumstances. The increasing demand for GaN in 5G/6G, renewable energy and electric vehicle markets will boost the material’s value in the context of consumer electronics and related industrial chains. GaN is going to be the next-gen “superstar” in the semiconductor industry. The Department of Industri...

Ohio State University and Sandia National Laboratories in the USA claim the first demonstration of triple-junction cascaded III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) [Zane Jamal-Eddine et al, Appl. Phys. Express, v14, p092003, 2021]. Stacking LEDs is one way to overcome the limitations in output power density imposed by the effects of efficiency droop at large current density. Tunnel-junction (TJ) structures are used to connect LEDs since they enable electron majority carriers to be transformed to ...

Some of the advantages of third-generation semiconductors SiC and GaN include their ability to operate under high voltages, high temperatures （for SiC）, and high frequencies（for GaN）. Not only do these advantages allow manufacturers to significantly reduce the physical sizes of chips, but peripheral circuit designs can also be simplified as a result, thereby further reducing the sizes of modules, peripheral components, and cooling systems. That is why SiC and GaN have become important strategic focuses of the global semiconductor industry. As part of its ongoing goa...

In response to the increasing demands of mobile applications, manufacturers are now placing a priority on extending the battery life of such devices like smartphones and notebook computers. However, due to the inherent limitations of physical space in these devices, the quest for ever-greater battery capacity has seemingly reached a bottleneck, forcing them to look elsewhere for solutions, hence the development of fast charging technology. As such, fast chargers equipped with GaN (Gallium nitride, which is a third-generation semiconductor) chips have are now expected to introduce th...

World first is set to transform next-generation display technology. University of Cambridge spin-out Porotech has today announced the launch of its first product based on its breakthrough gallium nitride (GaN) production technique that is set to transform the electronics industry. The company has launched the world's first commercial native red LED epiwafer for micro-LED applications. Micro-LED display technology offers a huge improvement on standard display panels due to its optimum brightness, efficiency and image definition, as well as improved lifetime. These b...

Poro Technologies (Porotech), is a spin-out from the University of Cambridge focusing on GaN material technology. The company has closed a GBP 1.5 million (US$ 1.86 million) seed round investment. According to the report of Cambridge, the investment will support Porotech to develop a pilot plant in Cambridge and its first major products. The seed round was co-led by Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialization arm of the University of Cambridge, and IQ Capital Partners, with the additional participation of Martlet Capital and a syndicate of angel investors from ...

STMicroelectronics announced the collaboration with TSMC to accelerate the development of Gallium Nitride (GaN) process technology and the supply of both discrete and integrated GaN devices to market. Through this partnership, ST’s GaN products will be manufactured using TSMC’s GaN process technology. GaN is a wide bandgap semiconductor material which is considered outpacing traditional Silicon-based semiconductors for power applications. GaN is more energy efficient at high power and allows the design of more compact devices for better form fact...

German semiconductor equipment provider AIXTRON announced its partnership with Nagoya University in Japan. The equipment maker has delivered a Close Coupled Showerhead® (CCS) system to the University’s Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability (IMaSS). AIXTRONs 3x2-inch Flip Top CCS MOCVD platform is intended for research in the field of GaN-based deep ultra-violet (DUV) optoelectronic devices. Specially designed for research and small series production, the AIXTRON system enables real scaling from R&D ...

Dr. Hiroshi Amano, a 2014 Nobel laureate in physics, delivered a lecture at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan on October 3rd, sharing his research progress on GaN blue LED with Prof. Isamu Akasaki and how he has transferred his research focus from blue LED to UV LED and GaN power. He also highlighted the potential applications of GaN technology in the era of IoT and 5G. 

SEMICON Taiwan 2018 was held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center on September 5 -7. Many leading equipment manufacturers have joined the event including Aixtron, Veeco, Kulicke & Soffa, MPI Corporation and Toray. These equipment makers have introduced the latest trends of power components and optoelectronic. 

Gallium nitride (GaN) has emerged as one of the most important and widely used semiconducting materials. Its optoelectronic and mechanical properties make it ideal for a variety of applications, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), high-temperature transistors, sensors and biocompatible electronic implants in humans.

German MOCVD manufacturer Aixtron and Chinese investor Grand Chip Investment are determined to complete the acquisition business transaction despite objections raised by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Ten years after launching a gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor company, the two Ottawa-based co-founders of GaN Systems, President Girvan Patterson and CTO John Roberts have announced their retirement. Having achieved their goal of building GaN Systems into the world leading manufacturer of GaN power transistors and supplier to more than 500 customers, serial entrepreneurs Patterson and Roberts will leave their operating roles. Patterson will retain a position on GaN Systems’ Board of Directors, while Roberts will remain available to the company as an emeritus contributor.

Chinese manufacturers technology have advanced in the past year to result in large GaN price fluctuations, and have entered III-V EPI-wafer synthesizing industry to build a comprehensive IoT and telecommunication supply chain in the upstream sector.

NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ:NXPI), today announced an expansion to its portfolio of 48V Gallium Nitride (GaN) RF power transistors optimized for Doherty power amplifiers for use in current and next-generation cellular base stations. The four new transistors collectively cover cellular bands from 1805 to 3600 MHz, meeting the needs of wireless carriers for superior performance at higher frequencies.

In my last blog post, I walked you through a hands-on project: dimming a lamp with a gallium nitride (GaN) power stage, a Hercules™ microcontroller and a scroll wheel. I covered setup, design and how to drive the power stage the right way.

Sandeep Bahl of Texas Instrument stresses the importance of making reliable GaN material will largely rely on joint efforts in the industry to establish related standards in this blog entry.

Veeco Instruments Inc., the world’s leading supplier of metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems, announced today that it has signed a joint development project (JDP) agreement with imec, the Belgium-based nano-electronics research center.  The collaboration is expected to accelerate the development of highly-efficient, Gallium Nitride (GaN) based, power electronic devices using GaN Epi wafers created using Veeco’s Propel® Power GaN MOCVD system.

In the fabrication of solid state lighting devices, scientists are learning, oxygen also plays a two-edged role. While oxygen can impede the effectiveness of gallium nitride (GaN), an enabling material for LEDs, small amounts of oxygen in some cases are needed to enhance the devices' optical properties. GaN doped with europium (Eu), which could provide the red color in LEDs and other displays, is one such case.

Global semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer OEM Group announced today that a leading maker of LED products has placed a repeat order for an AGHeatpulse® RTP system. The system will be used for annealing gallium-nitride (GaN) films deposited on 150mm sapphire substrates, one of the critical process steps needed in advanced LED fabrication. This repeat order validates again the AGHeatpulse® RTP system's demonstrated capabilities meeting the exacting thermal requirements of new LED manufacturing technologies, and supports the LED industry's move from batch processing of smaller diameter sapphire substrates to single wafer processing of 150mm sapphire substrates.

The latest research from the Niels Bohr Institute shows that LEDs made from nanowires will use less energy and provide better light. The researchers studied nanowires using X-ray microscopy and with this method they can pinpoint exactly how the nanowire should be designed to give the best properties. The results are published in the scientific journal, ACS Nano.

You may have recently encountered “GaN,” which is replacing silicon (Si) in some key applications for power conversion. In this blog series, “How to design with GaN,” I will take a look at how gallium nitride (GaN) is different from Si and what the key considerations are when creating a power design with GaN.

Veeco Instruments announced that the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF, a leading German compound semiconductor research institution, has purchased a TurboDisc® K465i Gallium Nitride (GaN) MOCVD System. 

AIXTRON, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, today presented its next generation MOCVD system at the China SSL international trade fair. The new AIX R6 has been designed for the production of LEDs based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) and can be delivered in 12x6-, 31x4-, 121x2-inch wafer configurations. Equipped with numerous technical innovations the new tool will lower operational costs significantly while simplifying usability and process control.

Japan’s Fukuda Crystal Laboratory has successfully developed a 50 mm (about 2-inch) ScAlMgO4 (SCAM) crystal, according to a Chinese-language Nikkei Technology report.

Demand for gallium is forecast to rise rapidly between 2014 and 2020 as general lighting moves away from incandescent and fluorescent lamps to light-emitting diodes (LEDs).  This strong growth is not, however, likely to result in any tightness in supply as the market is oversupplied and likely to remain so.  

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new processing technique that makes light emitting diodes (LEDs) brighter and more resilient by coating the semiconductor material gallium nitride (GaN) with a layer of phosphorus-derived acid.

To accelerate the adoption of high quality, energy efficient LED lighting Con Edison of New York is offering substantial rebates (approximately $22, based on 13.2¢/kWh) on Soraa’s GaN on GaN™, full visible spectrum LED MR16 lamps. With the rebates, New York City businesses now have another incentive to install Soraa’s MR16 LED lamps, well known as the best LED MR16 retrofit lamp available, delivering the highest light output, color rendering, whiteness, and beam of any comparable product. Soraa will help you transform your ordinary li...