The first high performance gallium nitride wafers for mainstream power electronics
As the world becomes digitalized, the need for more energy efficient, faster and better performing Electronic Components and Systems (ECS) becomes paramount. These ECS are fully dependent on the semiconductor materials within, currently over 90% silicon (Si)-based. Pure Si technology can no longer cater to the needs placed upon ECS for power electronics and RF applications and thus new semiconductor technologies based on gallium nitride (GaN) are being explored. GaN material properties make it the primary choice for future generations of energy-efficient, high performance power electronics devices, necessary to modernize the energy grid and allow for sustainable energy production and use. However, bulk GaN is prohibitively expensive and thus inaccessible to mainstream applications. The main approach to making the technology commercially viable, reducing its cost significantly, is growing GaN layers on other materials, such as Si. Today, this poses a major technical barrier: existing methods result in high defect densities in the GaN layers, offering a fraction of the efficiency of bulk GaN and therefore poor ECS performance. Switching to GaN-on-Si today thus offers very limited advantages. To harness the full potential of GaN in a commercially viable way, we, at Hexagem, have developed EleGaNt, a cutting-edge new method of growing GaN semiconductor layers of unprecedented quality on any substrate. EleGaNt is the first to deliver capabilities on par with bulk GaN at the cost of current market-available underperforming GaN-on-Si. Our patented EleGaNt growth method introduces a new era of semiconductor wafer tech for an energy efficient power and RF electronics market and has the potential to become the new silicon in the multi-billion power electronics industry, whilst also offering a route towards expanding the TAM for GaN tech. We will license our tech to ECS manufacturers for integration into their fabs, whilst we remain a cutting-edge tech development company.