UK government helps NWF develop GaN foundry process February 09, 2021 // By Peter Clarke
The UK Research and Innovation agency is supporting the development of a gallium-nitride high electron mobility transistor foundry process for Newport Wafer Fab Ltd.
The project is being coordinated by the Compound Semiconductor Centre Ltd (CSC) and NWF with a plan to deliver a 650V GaN-on-silicon HEMT process for implementation with 200mm-diameter wafers.
The epitaxial process makes use of intellectual property developed by CSC in partnership with IQE. The project is supported by UKRI under the Automotive Transformation Fund although the amount of funding was not disclosed. This is an exciting step towards NWFs vision of becoming a major manufacturer of compound-on-silicon products. We see the wide bandgap power device market as an excellent area to address in our plans to expand our current manufacturing footprint of 8,000 wafer starts per week to 14,000, and
UK made: 650V 200mm GaN foundry process for automotive in Wales
The UK government is backing the Compound Semiconductor Centre and Newport Wafer Fab to develop a 200mm Gallium Nitride power transistor foundry process.
Both these organisations are inside the compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales.
Coordinated jointly by the Centre and Fab, the intention is to deliver a 650V GaN-on-silicon HEMTs (all GaN power transistors are high electron mobility transistors) on 200mm wafers.
“We are initially targeting the electric vehicle segment of the market, including traction inverters, “said the Centre’s GaN programme manager Rob Harper. “As the project progresses, we hope to roll out custom foundry offerings that address additional market segments including mobile and laptop fast chargers, and energy storage inverters.”
UKRI support for 200mm Gallium Nitride HEMT foundry process UKRI has announced support for the Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) and Newport Wafer Fab (NWF) in developing a 200mm Gallium Nitride HEMT foundry process.
The project is a co-ordinated effort by CSC and NWF to deliver a foundry grade 650V GaN-on-Silicon HEMT process on a 200mm wafer platform.
The HEMT fabrication process technology will leverage 30 years of Silicon Power device manufacturing heritage at Newport Wafer Fab, developed under an automotive (IATF 16949) quality accredited volume manufacturing environment.
The epitaxial solution will look to leverage IP developed by CSC in partnership with its parent company IQE, on a high volume Aixtron G5 200mm manufacturing platform at its Cardiff, UK facility. CSC recently achieved full ISO9001 accreditation of its internal Quality Management System covering development through to volume scale up. The project is supported by UKRI under the â
CPI joins Quantum Sensor project
The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is joining the Quantum Sensors project – to develop sensors for revolutionising quality assessment and battery grading in the manufacturing line.
The Quantum Sensors project is a collaboration between 11 partners in the supply chain to develop a pilot scale system capable of continuous end-of-line testing of battery cells using optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs).
The system will feature an array of OPMs, which act as quantum sensors to detect the small magnetic field given off by healthy lithium cells. This technique can be used to monitor the quality of battery cells on the production line in order to quickly reject faulty cells and provide detailed quality assurance.
CPI joins consortium to develop quantum sensors for end-of-line battery testing CPI, the independent technology innovation centre and founding member of the UK Governmentâs High Value Manufacturing Catapult, is participating in a collaborative project â termed the Quantum Sensors project.
The project is intended to develop sensors that will help to revolutionise quality assessment and battery grading in the manufacturing line and help advance electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the UK and overcome cost barriers to enable the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
By 2030, it is anticipated that 50% of vehicles produced will be partially or wholly electric, however there are still challenges in battery and lithium cell technology that need to be addressed in order to achieve this.