April 13, 2009: Inlustra Technologies, a California-based startup spun out from gallium nitride (GaN) research laboratories at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has developed a scalable production process for nonpolar and semipolar GaN substrates. The company is expanding its production facilities and has recently started to fill orders from customers.

GaN semiconductor materials are critical for the production of compact and highly efficient green, blue, violet, and ultraviolet light sources. They form the basis for green LEDs for traffic signals, white LEDs as backlights for modern high-definition/high contrast displays, and blue laser diodes for Blu-Ray DVD players. GaN-based white LEDs used for general lighting are seen as a highly efficient, non-toxic replacement for fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, yielding energy savings equivalent to over 5 billion barrels of oil over the next 20 years (according to the US Dept. of Energy).

The crystal structure of GaN causes some of its properties to vary strongly with orientation. The nonpolar and semipolar planes of this structure have excited practitioners in recent years as alternatives to the conventional polar GaN c-plane, which faces some fundamental device efficiency limitations. Nonpolar and semipolar GaN promise markedly increased device performance, manufacturing yields, and device longevity compared to conventional GaN technology. While the benefits of GaN substrates are widely acknowledged, producing the material has proven challenging, especially in the nonpolar and semipolar orientations.

“Our proprietary crystal growth techniques significantly reduce the number of microscopic defects in the substrates, which will enable our customers to realize improved yields in their device production processes,” Paul Fini, CTO at Inlustra, said in a news release. The company is currently offering nonpolar GaN substrate sizes between 5×10mm and 10×20mm but will scale up its process to 2-in. over the next 9-12 months.