SMI and SUNY Poly partner on DoE GaN project
Researchers will focus on production of uniform quality GaN materials on large area substrates of 4 inches and above for electric drive vehicle electronics
Structured Materials Industries (SMI) has been awarded a Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) contract by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to develop manufacturing infrastructure for GaN (>20A/>600V) qualified for vehicle power electronics. The project is in partnership with the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly).
SMI and SUNY Poly researchers will address issues related to the production of uniform quality GaN materials on large area substrates (4 inches and beyond). They will also design and develop power devices that will perform at high current (>20A) and high voltages (>600V) for electric drive vehicle electronics.
SMI's focus will be developing novel reactor concepts to increase the GaN material quality /uniformity across large wafer sizes. SUNY will use reactor technology to optimise materials and device structures on 4 inch substrates. SMI will help with the commercialisation of both device and reactor technology.
Shahedipour-Sandvik, SMI's partner at SUNY Poly, an expert in growth of III-N materials and device fabrication was the first to report enhancement operation in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. The SUNY Poly team has recently reported on a novel integrated body-diode AlGaN/GaN HEMT power device that enables dynamic tuning of Von and substantially reduces Ioff current.
Principal investigator and SMI research scientist, Arul Arjunan commented: "We are designing a concept MOCVD system to improve the yield and quality of GaN devices for vehicle power electronics. The concept system will lead to grow films with both thickness and quality uniformity. In addition to this, we will aim to improve the quality of the film to achieve better devices than that are currently existing. The success of this program will increase the efficiency of the hybrid electric and electric vehicles”.
In Phase I the team will demonstrate GaN power devices at the 100 mm wafer scale, which can operate at >600V and > 10A. (The Phase I reach goal is >20A and >600V). At the end of the Phase I program, the team will define the product scale-up pathways for 100, 150 and 200mm wafer production and packaged device production in addition to firming up potential customers.
"SMI’s team is very happy to be contributing to the advancement of nitride power technology”, said SMI's president and CEO, Gary S. Tompa, further adding: “Improving power efficiency and lowering costs will help bring greater numbers of more environmentally friendly vehicles to market sooner."
In the past, SMI has worked on several different III-N funded research programs and has built tools for research and development of III-Nitrides.
