EpiGaN wins 2014 Cleantech Award
EpiGaN, the European manufacturer of large-diameter GaN-on-silicon wafers, has won the prestigious 2014 Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA) Later Stage Award in the category "Energy efficiency". The 2014 Award was announced on 3rd December 2014, at the 5th annual CleanTech Investing Seminar in Lausanne, Switzerland.
EpiGaN, based in Hasselt, Belgium, a spin-off of the Belgian nano and micro-electronics research center Imec, provides semiconductor manufacturers with III-nitride epitaxial materials and large-diameter GaN-on-Si wafers for top-performance power switching and radio-frequency communication devices.
EpiGaN's GaN-on-Si wafer development and production facility at the Hasselt Campus targets device manufacturers for power supplies, consumer electronic goods, hybrid electric vehicles, smart grid systems, solar inverters and AC drives or RF base stations.
"We are very happy that we were selected by the GCCA among ten powerful and innovative finalists for this prestigious award," said Marianne Germain, founder and CEO of EpiGaN. "It is highly satisfying and motivating to be recognised for the hard work that our very committed research and manufacturing team has put in since the founding of the company in 2010. Right now, we are expanding our production capacity for the volume manufacture of large-diameter wafers that support high-power and high-breakdown voltages. EpiGaN's continuous growth trajectory is propelled by the rising demand from our worldwide industrial customers."
The Global Cleantech Later Stage (GCCA) Award vets the most promising later-stage high-tech companies across the globe and provides the best of them with the public exposure to succeed and grow further. Contenders for the award compete in ten categories, including solar, wind, water, energy efficiency and more. "Cleantech is thriving throughout the world as a major driver of economic growth," said Christian Haeuselmann, a cofounder and Chairman of the GCCA, and Cluster Manager for swisscleantech who hosted this year's awards. "The 2014 winners are proving that companies innovating in the new green economy are both investable and thriving."
The global top 10 contenders were selected from the 10,000 companies represented by the GCCA's nearly 52 member clusters. Over 100 companies were nominated in their regions, narrowed to the top-30 semi-finalists using the Keystone Method, a business and venture development tool developed by GCCA head judge Peter Adriaens, CEO of the Keystone Compact Group.
