Aixtron and Exagan move GaN-on-Si to 200mm substrates
Aixtron, a provider of deposition equipment, has shipped an AIX G5+ C system to French power GaN start-up Exagan, a spin-off from semiconductor materials firm Soitec and European research centre CEA-Leti.
Exagan will use Aixtron's deposition tool to start volume production of GaN-on-Si materials for power-switching devices.
Fabrice Letertre, COO and co-founder of Exagan, comments: "Aixtron and our parent company CEA-Leti have enjoyed a long and successful R&D relationship developing GaN-on-Si technology. Now Exagan is partnering with Aixtron to deliver on our industrial roadmap by using epi to reach our cost milestones.
"By implementing an efficient GaN-on-Si manufacturing process on 200 mm silicon substrates, we are aligning GaN technology with silicon manufacturing standards. This makes our G-FET products the most cost-efficient wide-bandgap solution for the solar, IT electronics, connectivity and automotive markets."
The AIX G5+ C Planetary Reactor system is an advanced epitaxy production platform. It comes in a 5x200 mm configuration with single-wafer rotation and is equipped with full cassette-to-cassette wafer loading as well as Aixtron´s in-situ reactor cleaning feature for high-volume manufacturing.
Exagan, in collaboration with its R&D partner CEA-Leti, selected the AIX G5+ C epitaxial deposition tool after evaluating its effectiveness in achieving tight uniformity control and high throughput using Exagan's proprietary G-Stack(tm) process technology.
This technology is used in creating a unique stack of GaN-based materials that enables the fabrication of Exagan's G-FET high-power, very-high-efficiency transistors. Along with Soitec's industrial facility and expertise and CEA-Leti's 200 mm equipment and characterisation tools, Aixtron's equipment adds to Exagan's supply chain as it ramps up its material production facility in Grenoble.
This equipment installation is a major step in Exagan's and CEA-Leti's strategic partnership to accelerate Exagan's GaN-on-Si integration roadmap. The partnership is supported by the 'G-drive+' R&D project, funded by Bpifrance through the Investissements d'Avenir.
"Our AIX G5+ C is the only system to date offering full automation of GaN-on-Si MOCVD processes as commonly encountered in the silicon industry. The system achieves the highest on-wafer layer uniformity in a batch multi-wafer configuration for maximum throughput and yield. We are pleased to work with the Exagan team on volume production of 200 mm GaN-on-Si materials for efficient power electronics applications," says Frank Wischmeyer, VP power electronics at Aixtron.
