The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF has become a member of GaN Valley. The initiative networks companies and scientific institutions in order to promote the sovereign development and production of components based on the III-V compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) in Europe.
The aim is to provide members with a platform for knowledge transfer and in-depth cooperation and, on this basis, to establish secure European supply chains for promising GaN technologies.
As a wide bandgap semiconductor, GaN is characterized by a number of advantages over elemental semiconductors such as silicon (Si), among other compound semiconductors. GaN-based circuits suffer lower energy losses, can handle higher voltages and frequencies and are more robust, e.g. they can be reliably operated at higher ambient temperatures than Si-based circuits.
Fraunhofer IAF contributes knowledge and infrastructure to the initiative for the research and development of GaN-based components, circuits and modules for applications in power and high-frequency electronics, for example for high-bit-rate satellite communication and energy conversion in electric vehicles or heat pumps. The 1000 m2 clean room also enables the institute to offer services along the entire semiconductor value chain, from design, epitaxy, processing and characterization to module construction and (sub)system integration. This applies both to the development of individual demonstrators and to small series production.
