Gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon technology developer Nitronex Corp. has announced plans to offer GaN epitaxial wafers to help electronic device developers and manufacturers accelerate the adoption of GaN-based technology in their specific markets. Because of its advantageous intrinsic properties, GaN-based materials have been the focus of intense development efforts for electronic devices in recent years.

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Currently, silicon carbide (SiC) and sapphire are the substrates of choice for certain GaN-based products. SiC and sapphire based GaN products have reached commercialization in some markets, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes. However, there remains a wide range of untapped opportunities for GaN technology and specifically, GaN-on-Silicon technology. Some of these applications and markets include high temperature and hall sensors, switches, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), military radar and communications applications, as well as RF power transistors.

“Growing GaN on industry-standard silicon provides several unique advantages to GaN device developers,” said Edwin Piner, Nitronex’s director of materials engineering. “Using large-area, 100 mm silicon substrates provides the economic benefits of large wafer scaling, as well as cheaper wafer procurement costs in comparison to other substrates. These benefits, in addition to our patented process of growing high-quality GaN on silicon, are what will ultimately allow for widespread GaN-based device commercialization.”

“We are very excited about making our patented SIGANTIC process available to leading-edge companies by now offering GaN epi wafers,” said Christopher Rauh, Nitronex’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We receive many inquires from organizations interested in developing various GaN-based devices and we realized it was time to exploit the technology we already had to help others build their next generation devices, just as we are doing with our commercial RF power transistors. According to Nitronex, this new offering is part of the company’s overall strategy to be a promoter and enabler for the broad commercialization of GaN devices into a variety of markets.