Zhang Naiqian: analysis of the development trend of Si based GaN power devices

In September 5, 2013, the first International Symposium on the third generation semiconductor materials and application development was successfully held in Shenzhen, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, Peking University, Institute of semiconductors, CREE, Xi'an Electronic and Science University and other research institutions and enterprises of nearly a hundred people attended the meeting.

Suzhou hearing, chairman of Mr. Zhang Naiqian high energy semiconductor Co. Ltd. at the meeting to do the "analysis" the development trend of Si based GaN power device as the title of the report, through the detailed explanation of gallium nitride (GaN) silicon (SI) advantage, product advantage, GaN based gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) content of LED the relationship between the power electronic devices, power devices in Gan optional business model and influence and so on, the direction of technology development and market prospect of silicon gallium nitride power semiconductor power device causes, development of silicon nitride silicon gallium nitride semiconductor industry, Gan materials and devices of the power.

He first briefly in the case of the United States introduced energy-saving, semiconductor technology based on the application of he said that after the application of semiconductor technology, annual savings in electricity reached trillion, with a new generation of power devices, power loss can be reduced by 30%.

He pointed out the advantages compared to silicon nitride includes three aspects, the first is relatively low on resistance, low resistance conductive gallium nitride silicon than about 1000 times; the second point is very fast, the switching speed of Gan silicon is about 100 times higher than the increase in power density; third, high temperature resistance, high temperature environment GaN you can use more than 500 DEG C.

The relationship between GaN and SiC electronic devices, chairman Zhang Naiqian said, more suitable for the following Gan 900v device, it is a planar device from the aspect of materials; it is not a material, it is the advantage of the raw materials of Gan lighting industry can rely on large, low cost, can always grow in Gan a large slice of silicon, which can reduce the control cost, and can be put into mass production; Gan scale is very important, gallium nitride (GaN) device fabrication equipment needed by silicon industry, easy large-scale industrialization.

Zhang Naiqian Gan market outlook for the market space and the size of the market to do a simple introduction, he said, this year all semiconductor devices together including materials, probably less than $20 billion, by 2020 may reach $40 billion, its development is relatively stable, unlike the LED enterprise relatively large fluctuations.

In this market, there are about 2/3 of the market belongs to industrial low voltage below 900v, higher than 900v accounted for 1/3, Gan is suitable for about 2/3 of the market, the market is quite large.

The development status of Gan industry, Zhang Naiqian pointed out that in the development of the industry, Gan started relatively early, through the promotion of government and industry, industry of Gan appeared in 1993, the first UCSB Gan RF devices appeared in 1999 the first Gan power electronic devices in 2007 6 inch silicon substrate grown Gan, from basic the application point of view to promote; while the United States Europe respectively in 2002 and 2007 launched a promotion plan; in 2013 appeared through the silicon substrate Gan power devices JEDEC quality standards, at the same time Chinese Department of science and Technology launched the third generation semiconductor 863 plan.

Zhang Naiqian said that the current into the Gan silicon in this industry there are five enterprises, which are power semiconductor and semiconductor silicon business enterprises, silicon integrated circuit enterprises, Gan risk enterprises and LED enterprises. Power semiconductor companies among the world's top 20 are doing basically, now basically can not find to do business power semiconductor silicon Gan; LED lighting business is also very suitable for GaN, LED lighting is the main material, material lead industry, LED MOCVD capacity is quite large, not only to meet LED the development, also can meet the development of electronic devices. LED manufacturers can also be diversified, you can put excess capacity allocated to power electronics, can gradually into the silicon nitride industry. Although LED has a great advantage to gallium nitride, but also do not want to be able to turn, from the material in terms of the need to reach 6 inches, 8 inches of change, the production and design of the device and LED have some differences. Therefore, LED needs to convert the substrate from the sapphire substrate to the large size Si substrate, but also to learn and use the power device design and processing technology.

The intervention of LED Gan power devices business model has two kinds, Zhang Naiqian pointed out that the first one is to do, including the production of gallium nitride epitaxial materials and manufacture of power devices, the second is to provide power to Gan epitaxial wafer device manufacturers.

Zhang Naiqian said, a LED industry Gan power devices the temptation is its cost to be cut, in the process of LED development, investment in Fixed Assets Depreciation accounts for a large part, from this perspective, the extension of the cost can be reduced by 20%, overall cost can be reduced by about 10%.

Zhang Naiqian proposed that in all process semiconductor growth, with the growth of gallium nitride material can be 6 inches to 8 inches on the wafer, the production will soon move towards the development of 6 to 8 inches. He said that the main direction of the future development of gallium nitride is 6 inches to 8 inches, and mainly to the 8 inch.

At the same time, he also pointed out that the development of gallium nitride at the beginning of the existence of 7 technical problems:

Epitaxial technology: epitaxial technology has great heat