Saturday, November 12, 2011

GaN diode performance continues to advance past SiC theoretical limits

Because crystalline SiC materials development got real with early ONR and DARPA funding, SiC power electronics development has led to some great performances and the beginnings of commercialization, with SiC device results slowly getting closer to the theoretical limits of the SiC materials system.

However, we have known for decades that GaN should do better than SiC, and now that others, with Japan leading, are investing heavily in crystalline GaN materials technology, GaN devices are being demonstrated that surpass the theoretical limits of SiC devices. This article about R&D at Hosei Universiy and Hitachi Cable is yet another example of how crystalline GaN substrates enable us to cross that theoretical SiC performance limit.

With all else being equal, we would then predict that GaN is going to continue to get better and better and the day may be soon in which all GaN devices perform better than all SiC devices. But what about the price and the influence of other market dynamics? Well, the importance of GaN for solid state lighting and laser diodes means that GaN will continue to become more and more available in larger and larger form factor and a lower prices going forward, another reason to be "Long on GaN."

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