January 24, 2012 — Semiconductor materials companies Soitec (Euronext) and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. demonstrated 4" and 6" engineered gallium nitride (GaN) substrates, part of their strategic joint development program started in December 2010. The companies launched pilot production lines to enable wider market adoption.
Multiple engineered GaN substrates are produced by transferring ultra-thin high-quality GaN layers from a single GaN wafer. The technique combines Sumitomo Electric’s GaN wafer manufacturing technology with Soitec’s Smart Cut layer-transfer method. The resulting wafers have low defect density, and the same coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as GaN wafers, without the high cost of bulk GaN wafers.
The scalability demonstrated from 2" to 4" and 6" wafers during the project brought the partners to invest in pilot production lines in Itami, Japan, and Bernin, France. Sumitomo Electric will manufacture bulk free-standing GaN substrates in Japan for shipment to France, where Soitec will apply its Smart Cut layer-transfer process to generate the engineered wafers. Based on CVD techniques, Smart Cut technology’s wafer bonding and layer splitting processes made it possible to transfer a thin layer of crystalline material from a donor substrate to another substrate. The pilot lines will initially fabricate four-inch wafers with six-inch wafer production to quickly follow to support customers demand.
The substrates target use in advanced high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) manufacture, as well as power-efficient controllers for the electric vehicles and energy markets. These substrates "will allow the introduction of a new materials platform with novel and advanced functionalities," said Frédéric Dupont, vice president of Soitec’s Specialty Electronics Business Unit, commenting on the milestone. Yoshiki Miura, general manager of the Compound Semiconductor Materials Division at Sumitomo Electric, noted the "amazing business opportunities" of the LED and energy markets.
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. designs, manufactures and sells optical fibers, cables, components, advanced electronic devices, and automotive parts. For more information about Sumitomo Electric, visit http://global-sei.com.
Soitec manufactures revolutionary semiconductor materials for energy and electronic applications. For more information, visit: www.soitec.com.