News: Suppliers
22 June 2020
EasyGaN, Riber and CRHEA grow first 200mm AlN-on-Si template using ammonia-based MBE
GaN-on-silicon technology start-up EasyGaN SAS of Sophia Antipolis, France, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system maker Riber S.A. of Bezons, France and CRHEA (a CNRS research laboratory specialized in epitaxial growth of wide-bandgap semiconductor materials) – from which EasyGaN was spun off in 2017 – have fabricated what it says is the first 200mm aluminium nitride on silicon (AlN-on-Si) template using ammonia (NH3)-based MBE.
Using a Riber MBE 49 reactor at CRHEA, the team grew the template on an 8-inch silicon wafer with what is claimed to be unprecedented quality in terms of roughness, pit density and structural quality. EasyGaN says that it will hence be able to provide high-quality AlN templates to the electronic market enabling the fabrication of gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) devices with improved breakdown voltages, significantly lower RF losses, and allowing for higher manufacturing throughput with the required diameters. The advance is also a step forward in the development of EasyGaN’s own GaN-on-Si epiwafer solutions.
“This achievement was crucial for the adoption of our template technology by the GaN-on-Si manufacturers,” reckons EasyGaN’s CEO André Bonnardot. “We are looking forward to showing what our NH3-MBE AlN template solution can bring to the market,” he adds.
“Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on working conditions, the epi team remained fully mobilized to complete quickly this proof of concept, which qualifies the Riber MBE 49 GaN as the perfect 200mm MBE production tool for growing high-quality GaN epilayers on silicon for power electronics,” says Riber’s CEO Philippe Ley.
“The growth of III-nitrides on silicon by MBE has been a major research area at CRHEA for the last two decades,” says CRHEA’s director Philippe Boucaud. “Growing AlN-on-Si templates on an industrial 200mm MBE reactor represents a major achievement, a perfect example of successful transfer from original academic ideas to industrial partners.”
