News: Suppliers
25 May 2021
OIPT’s ALE technology chosen by tier-1 automotive supplier for GaN power electronic program
Plasma etch and deposition processing system maker Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) of Yatton, near Bristol, UK says that a “leading German semiconductor manufacturer to the automotive industry” has selected its PlasmaPro100 Cobra system for the development of gallium nitride (GaN) power electronic devices.
The PlasmaPro100 Cobra system is designed for superior uniformity, high-precision and low-damage process solutions, says OIPT. The production-proven system allows for rapid change between wafer sizes up to 200mm, and cost of ownership is one of the lowest in the market, it claims.
The PlasmaPro100 Cobra system will be incorporated into the semiconductor manufacturer’s R&D section and will be used for the development of GaN power devices, which are gaining market share in fast-charger applications and offer benefits in electric vehicle (EV) power management systems.
“We continue to see very encouraging signals in the form of increasingly proactive customer engagement and clear market preparation and positioning activities from significant industry players for the emerging wide-bandgap power electronic market,” says OIPT.
“Our atomic-scale processing etch solution being selected by this world-leading manufacturer for their GaN power electronics program is an important strategic win for Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology,” comments Klaas Wisniewski, Plasma Technology’s strategic business development director. “The GaN-based power electronic market is very dynamic, with improvements to both performance and cost expected at each design iteration,” he adds. “This reiterates the importance of our strategy to focus on atomic-scale processing solutions such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and atomic layer etching (ALE).”
