About the Project

Description

The radio-frequency devices have been so far built exclusively on bulk materials (GaAs, InP, Silicon Carbide - SiC). However, new applications are requesting higher performances (such as operating voltage, maximum power or operating temperature) from those devices and substrate materials appear to become one of the major limiting factors.

The objective of this project is to develop and evaluate a new type of composite substrate based on Silicon and Silicon Carbide materials, able to provide a cost efficient solution that will leverage the use of advanced high power devices in wireless communication systems.

Objectives

This project aims to investigate and optimize two different substrates capable of supporting GaN HEMT devices:

• SiC on polycrystalline SiC: Thanks to multiple usages of the high quality single crystal SiC as the seed layer, and to high thermal conductivity of the inexpensive polycrystalline SiC, this substrate will significantly improve the cost of GaN HEMT structure grown on it.
• Si on polycrystalline SiC: The silicon as seed layer will provide large diameter substrate for manufacturing of GaN HEMT (4 or 6 inches) and the polycrystalline SiC will significantly improve the thermal conductivity as opposed to bulk silicon . This substrate can be dedicated to large volume applications.

HYPHEN's main objective is to bridge the gap between the low-performance and low-cost single crystal silicon and the high-performance and high-cost single crystal SiC substrate currently used for GaN based RF devices. HYPHEN aims at the demonstration of scalable composite substrates with dielectric and thermal properties far above those of silicon at a level of cost much below semi-insulating SiC.

The Hyphen project will develop and characterize the complete technology chain, from substrate to device, relying on a European consortium composed of skilled and recognized academic institutes (DEI, IEMN, IET, MFA) and industrial partners (Norstel, Picogiga, UMS and III-V Lab).

Contract Number:
FP6-027455

News

Work partially supported by the European Community, under the Innovation Society Technologies (IST) programme of the 6th Framework Programme for RTD-project ELeGI, contract IST-002205. This website does not represent the opinion of the European Community, and the European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appeared therein.