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  • Author Author: rscasny
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How will GaN change the world of electronics design in the next decade?

rscasny

Silicon has been the kingpin of the semiconductor industry for a long time. And it should be: it has an ideal crystal structure for use as a semiconductor, But in today's world where ultra-low power and an extremely small package are two important factors in electronics design, maybe silicon has sort of reached its limits. What's the alternative?

 

As a semiconductor material, gallium nitride (GaN) is getting the attention that silicon once had. GaN works will in high voltage and high temperature applications. Plus it has high switching frequencies than silicon and attractive for its high energy efficiency.

 

So, how will GaN change the world of electronics design in the next decade?

  • I agree with that GaN will have specific applications but will not replace silicon.  GaN has some similar issues to other III/V semiconductors that we used in the past when we were trying to achieve higher frequency performance- GaAs and InP.  These materials are hard to scale in terms of wafer size and circuit density and because of higher cost.

  • I've been validating GaN power FETS for a few years now.

    Checking Out GaN Half-Bridge Power Stage: Texas Instruments LMG5200 - Part 1: Preview

     

    I think they have a place together with silicon, won't replace it.

    GaN has some very good attributes that help fast switching - perfect for digital switching and switch mode power applications - and for some RF solutions.

    But GaN is several orders of magnitude more expensive to make than silicon (sand) - and that will be so forever.

    It has disadvantages too compared to silicon, making the devices more sensitive for particular failure modes and not the best choice for use in the linear (non-switched) range.

  • I am looking forward to using GaN devices in the near future because of their lower on resistance. It looks like you could come up with something closer to an ideal diode than what can be done today.

    GaN devices have many great performance features which allow a device equivalent to a silicon power mosfet to be smaller, faster, higher voltage, higher temperature, etc. However the simpler GaN devices are depletion mode devices (normally on and they need a negative voltage to turn off) E-GaN (enhancement mode GaN) devices are possible, but not all semi houses have a good method to make them and patents are slowing adoption. It is also not yet feasible to shrink GaN devices as small as silicon transistors, so large scale integrated circuits are a ways off. It will take time to solve the scaling issues and then it will take time for the patents to expire before we see really cheap GaN chips on the market. In the mean time there will be lots of applications where the performance gains make it worth the extra cost to use Gan devices.

    There is lots of money being spent on the race to get feasible chips first, so maybe breakthroughs will occur faster than most are predicting, and prices may erode faster than the patents, but I still expect prices will be at a premium for a while.

    Of course this is all speculation and it is the internet, so I could be full of hot air...image

  • I'm not too clued-up on the physics of it all, but I'm especially interested in GaN LEDs. Some manufacturers concentrated on that, presumably because they'd invested in GaN technology for power applications too, and it takes years to refine their processes. Whereas other manufacturers might have started with a different technology (e.g. Silicon Carbide) and are expanding into that. Apparently there's many variants too, like GaN devices grown on SiC, or grown on sapphire, and again the manufacturers have to spend years /decades refining things, not knowing for sure if the research will bear fruit, or if an alternative technology will take over (especially if the processes to work with it end up cheaper or more reliable for instance).

    So, it's very exciting, continually seeing the improvements in light quality and efficiency that they're achieving.