Kyma Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of crystalline nitride semiconductor materials, announced today the addition of aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) templates to its product portfolio.
Kyma developed this product in collaboration with a partner as part of an advanced mid UV LED technology research project, which is ongoing. However, AlGaN Templates have great potential to impact other applications too, including high power RF communications and high power switching electronics.
Kyma's initial AlGaN Template product offering consists of a 5-micron thick epi-ready Al.9Ga.1N buffer layers grown on top of a 2" diameter sapphire substrate. Additional compositions and thicknesses will be offered in the future.
"Transistors based on AlN/AlGaN heterostructures have already been demonstrated which outperform their GaN counterparts in high temperature operation that is required for uncooled automotive applications," stated Ed Preble, Kyma's Chief Technology Officer. "Our AlGaN templates should support a further boost in transistor performance since they support lower defect density active regions when compared to typical MOCVD or MBE buffer layers grown on SiC or sapphire substrates."
Keith Evans, Kyma's president & CEO, added, "Our engineers have accomplished a lot very quickly and have already demonstrated high Al-content crack-free AlGaN layers over 10 microns thick. And we aren't stopping there. Our goal is to get up to 100 microns within the next six months and to demonstrate free-standing AlGaN in 2012."
In the future, the company plans to expand their AlGaN Template product offering to other combinations of Al-content, AlGaN thickness, substrate diameter (e.g., 3" and 4"), and substrate composition (e.g., Si and SiC).
Ms. Tamara Stephenson, Kyma's Technical Sales Engineer, added, "We are excited over what our AlGaN Templates can do for our customers. Yet it is still an early product, and we are seeking customer involvement to help us understand how it plays out in their device research and how we might further improve it."