RF Nitro completes gallium nitride clean room facility
Company to produce 4-inch gallium nitride epitaxial material and high-electron mobility transistors
Charlotte, NC. RF Nitro Communications, Inc. In the continuing development of its gallium nitride (GaN) production capability, RF Nitro Communications, Inc. announced today the completion of its new dedicated facility for GaN epitaxy and wafer processing. Located at the company s headquarters in Charlotte, the facility houses class-10 and class-1000 clean rooms and all support systems needed for production of GaN-based heteroepitaxial structures and power transistors. The facility was designed specifically to become the world s first GaN 4-inch wafer pilot line.
Since May 2000, RF Nitro has been selling GaN materials on 2-inch sapphire and silicon carbide (SiC) substrates. The new corporate facility enables expansion from 2-inch diameter substrates up to 4-inch. "Large-diameter sapphire costs approximately $100 per substrate and GaN-on-sapphire offers superior insulating properties, lower defect density, higher frequency performance, and superior power performance over GaN-on-silicon approaches," says Dr. Joseph Smart, Vice President of Advanced Materials, adding, "SiC substrates are expensive, but GaN-on-SiC offers the ultimate combination of frequency and power performance for high power applications."
Wafers to be fabricated on the new pilot line will employ heterostructures of gallium nitride and aluminum gallium nitride grown using RF Nitro s patented and proprietary 4-inch high-throughput Flow Modulation Epitaxy (FME) technology. "This facility is indicative of our commitment to offer our customers a low-cost and high-performance GaN IC technology," says Dr. Jeff Shealy, President and CEO. "With this new facility, we will extend our market leadership from GaN epitaxial materials to GaN devices and amplifier circuits for wireless and wireline infrastructure."
Company Overview
RF Nitro Communications, Inc., an ISO 9001 registered company, is the world s leading supplier of gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxial materials for electronics applications. In addition, RF Nitro manufactures gallium arsenide (GaAs) and GaN devices, and integrated circuits for wireless and wireline infrastructure. With the development of custom chip and packaged GaAs ICs, RF Nitro has established global sales channels necessary to support high-volume customer demands. Furthermore, RF Nitro is pioneering the development of 4-inch GaN wafer technology to produce amplifiers for high-power, high-frequency applications. The synergy of these two semiconductor materials provides next-generation power products that meet the stringent cost goals of wireless and optical markets.
RF Nitro Communications, Inc.
10420 Harris Oaks Blvd., Suite F Charlotte, NC 28269
http://www.rfnitro.com
Web site: http://www.rfnitro.com
