Ammono starts fabrication of 2-inch semi-insulating GaN substrates
Ammono SA, a Polish manufacturer of GaN by the ammonothermal method, has developed new types of highly resistive 2-inch Ammono-GaN semiconductor crystals. These were successfully used for production of 2-inch highly-resistive substrates as part of thef European Space Agency PECS programme 'Low Dislocation GaN for Space Applications' under the supervision of Andrew Barnes (ESA).
The crystals possess a high structural quality, confirmed by narrow X-ray diffraction rocking curves (20 arcsec) and large curvature radius (reaching few hundred metres), according to the company. The resistivity, estimated by capacitive and microwave methods, is at least 1010Ωcm, proving extremely isolating properties of the new material.
"Our new semi-insulating Ammono-GaN substrates enable efficient epitaxy and processing of GaN-based HEMTs," said Marcin ZajÄ…c, senior scientist and project coordinator at Ammono. "High substrate resistivity prevents parasitic current leakage in lateral transistors, which is necessary for a proper operation of the final device. Moreover, it is expected, that the very low dislocation density of the GaN substrate and epitaxial device structure is a key issue in device reliability, which is essential for the application of the developed material in space electronics -transistors for RF communication, radars, DC-DC power converters, high efficiency solar panels and many others".
The detailed parameters and measurement results were presented at the ESA 7th Wide Band Gap Semiconductor and Components Workshop 11-12 September 2014, ESA-ESRIN, Frascati (Rome), Italy, by Marcin ZajÄ…c.
Ammono is interested in establishing commercial and scientific collaboration, both in frame of the domestic and international projects.