Presentation at CS International 2021 are grouped into 5 key themes which collectively provide complete coverage of the compound semiconductor industry.
If you are interested in speaking at CS International 2021, please contact info@csinternational.net or call +44 (0)24 7671 8970.
The telecom infrastructure market has not moved much in the past decade in terms of the value of operators’ investments. Customer pricing also keeps decreasing, and building new infrastructure keeps showing smaller and smaller returns on investments for telecom operators. In this context, an attempt to create new markets and enlarge operators’ reach to customers beyond hand sets created 5G. The global landscape at network level will not move much before 2025. But it will definitely change in terms of technology and antenna systems, thus completely restructuring the radio frequency (RF) component industry. On one hand frequencies are going from less than 3 GHz to up to 6 GHz for macro deployments, while small cells exploit millimetre-wavelengths (mm-waves). Meanwhile RF line power levels in front-ends will decrease from a few hundred watts to down to a few watts in macro site antenna systems, thanks to massive MIMO and active antenna systems implementation. At Hand set level, the main phone manufacturers differentiate from each other on the RF field by adopting either an integrated or a discrete approach. The market leaders Samsung, Apple, as well as smaller OEMs such as Sony, LG, Google or ZTE are moving towards integration using complex RF modules from Broadcom, Skyworks, Qorvo, Qualcomm and Murata, while the markets challengers, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo, which drive as much volume as the market leaders, differentiate by favouring a discrete approach whenever possible. In our presentation, we will review how 5G is reshaping the RF Front-End industry. We will explain the positioning of the main component and module suppliers and review the technology mix needed to support 5G (Bulk Silicon, SiGe, GaAs, RFSOI, GaN,...) both at Telecom Infrastructure level and Handset level.
Awaiting presentation abstract.
To satisfy the need for more data we need mobile, RF systems in the hands of consumers that enables higher data rates. Higher data rates not just for consumption, but also for sharing their mobile creations. While 5G on the whole looks to fulfill this promise it is not necessarily through the new specifications themselves, but rather through enabling much wider bandwidth frequency ranges, because bandwidth is what we need for truly higher data rates. From re-farming LTE bands to 5G, new sub-6GHz bands, mmW, or carrier aggregation (CA) combinations of all of the above the focus is on bandwidth. However, dealing with wide bandwidth signals in a mobile environment in and amongst other users is not a trivial task. Qorvo is up to the challenge and is focusing on helping handset OEMs solve these problems. By using state of the art GaAs and SOI technologies our new 5G products are aimed squarely at delivering and receiving high quality, wide bandwidth signals; putting the power of 5G in consumers hands, no matter what frequency mobile operators choose to deploy.
Due to its higher power efficiency, GaN is heir apparent to silicon for 5G RF applications. GaN-based 5G power amplifiers can efficiently handle higher voltage in a much smaller area than comparable laterally diffused MOSFET (LDMOS) devices. Another factor which makes GaN attractive is its ability to power a much wider range of mmWave 5G frequencies than standard silicon. However, growing GaN epitaxial wafers has unique challenges. The quality of substrate wafer or non-optimal metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor conditions may impact device yield or reliability due to the presence of killer defects on the epitaxial layer. When there is a mismatch between the lattice constant and the thermal expansion coefficient of the epitaxial and substrate materials, high lattice stress may also lead to cracking and/or slip lines. We will discuss how multiple complementary inspection and metrology techniques can be used to detect critical defects on GaN wafers. We will also discuss how feedback from inspection & metrology systems can be used effectively to improve device yield.
Awaiting presentation abstract.
III-V solar cells based on germanium substrates have been the incumbent technology for space photovoltaic power for many decades. What few people know, is that these solar cells were initially developed on GaAs wafers. Why was GaAs completely replaced by Ge? Why in this specific market? We will explore this technology shift and dive into the world of germanium, because next to multi-junction solar cells, many other applications might benefit from the same characteristics. The speaker will challenge the audience to envision new ideas and possibilities of germanium.
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are now key optical sources in gigabit ethernet, high-speed optical-area networks, and computer links because of the advantages they offer, such as low threshold current and a small structure. During conventional blade dicing of VCSELs fabricated on gallium-arsenide (GaAs) substrates, GaAs wafers are fragile and chipping or edge cracks can easily occur. Hence, in the case of conventional saw processes, generally the kerf must be wider and the blade feed speed must be slower in order to avoid device damage due to chipping or edge cracks, which cause limitation of productivity. Plasma dicing has been proposed as a new wafer singulation method. The plasma dicing process is a technology to dice the entire wafer into chips at once [3]. As the wafer is processed using a chemical reaction by plasma, plasma dicing does not cause any physical damage to chips, regardless of the wafer thickness. Thus, the plasma dicing process eliminates chipping and cracks at the edge of chips. In addition, the number of chips which can be taken from one wafer are able to be increased by reducing kerf width, which is approximately the same as the opening width of photo resist during the lithography process before plasma dicing. In this report, we apply plasma dicing to VCSEL on GaAs substrate and demonstrate GaAs dicing, with no chipping at the edge of VCSELs or surface particles.
Light sources and photodetectors are fueling the CS market with 3D sensing applications in Smartphones and Lidar applications for GaAs, as well as Datacom and Telecom applications for InP. Advanced thin-film deposition is critical for best performance e.g. efficiency or dark current and meeting highest reliability standards. High quality, dense and conformal layers deposited by ALD and integrated processes for surface control are addressing these challenges. Beyond traditional barrier against moisture ingress this paper describes leading edge ALD applications available at industrial scale: (1) advanced surface passivation for reduced Dit and (2) chip scale processing of sidewall reflector and CSP.
The Solid State Lighting (SSL) source industry is nowadays at a crossroads between an LED industry that has reached a critical size, but is now mature and lacks strong market dynamics, and a laser diode industry that is booming but still emerging and proliferating, in terms of application/technology landscape. In this context, 2 major technologies are seen as potential “creators” of new killer applications: MicroLEDs and VCSELs. While MicroLEDs can revolutionize display applications, VCSELs have the potential to allow development of breakthrough features for smartphones. And whereas VCSELs have already started to make their way, MicroLEDs still suffer from technological barriers. So what’s needed to unlock the microLED market? And what does the future hold for the VCSEL? Those are the questions we’ll try to answer.
Awaiting presentation abstract.
Joining different semiconductor materials can be challenging due to mismatched material properties as e.g. the coefficient of thermal expansion or lattice structure. Wafer bonding has proven to be a viable way to combine various materials by using interlayers like polymers or metals as well as by direct bonding. However, for compound semiconductors also the form factor is often a crucial barrier. To this end beneficial performance characteristics mostly integrated on system-level but not on wafer level. Recent developments have proven that wafer level die bonding can provide a technically and commercially very attractive solution to this challenge. It combines the benefits of two worlds in terms of flexibility and process control while being scalable to high volume manufacturing.
Cost-effective probing of MicroLEDs in mass-production presents a new series of challenges associated with the greatly increased quantity and density of devices per wafer, specifically regarding measurement time, spatial resolution, and wafer throughput. Here we present a cost appropriate probing solution for wafer level metrology of MicroLEDs, specifically designed to address the need for post-frontend device verification.
In mature LED production factors like costs of ownership plus technical drivers like LOP (light output) and forward voltage (Vf) have been dominant. For emerging technologies like Micro LED however, the focus is on other challenges right now at this relatively early stage: The much thinner structures make thickness uniformity across the wafer and repeatability from wafer to wafer and batch to batch critical. Structures typically two orders of magnitude smaller also necessitate even better control of any film defects to achieve the device yields that will be required. Production solutions addressing these challenges will be presented.
This talk introduces the latest progress of Sony’s GaN-based visible VCSELs with features such as plane and curved mirrors made of dielectric materials. This novel class of GaN-based VCSELs allow small apertures down to 3 μm and long cavities of more than 20 μm without the occurrence of diffraction loss. These structures have enabled low threshold currents, high efficiency operation, and robust fabrication processes with high lasing yield. The proposed structure is facilitating the production of VCSELs formed on semi-polar plane GaN substrates and arrayed VCSELs, allowing green VCSELs and watt-class blue VCSEL arrays.
Photonics technology is projected to have double-digit growth over the next five years as existing applications increase and new applications are realized. Photonics devices such as VCSELs, edge emitting lasers, miniLEDs and microLEDs are seeing high demand in a wide variety of new applications including world-facing 3D sensing, high-speed data communication, LIDAR, smartwatches, AR/VR and ultra-high definition displays. Critical in the manufacturing of these devices is MOCVD epitaxial growth technology. This technology must meet industry’s stringent performance requirements, including extremely uniform materials wavelength, thickness and composition, dopant control and low defectivity while reducing costs via high productivity, high yields and lower operating expenses. Veeco has developed our next-generation Lumina™ As/P MOCVD platform for emerging applications that meet and exceed industry’s roadmap for VCSELS, edge emitting lasers and mini/microLEDs. Using VCSEL as an example, we are capable of achieving total population uniformity, i.e., within-wafer, wafer-to-wafer, and run-to-run of >95% yield in +/- 3nm bin on 6” GaAs with defectivity 2um and 50% higher throughput compared to other platforms. Veeco has also developed an improved GaN MOCVD platform for mini/µLEDs utilizing industry’s leading high-volume manufacturing EPIK® platform. For the miniLED market, we are exceeding industry’s uniformity requirements with within wafer wavelength uniformity of
Light sources and photodetectors are fueling the CS market with 3D sensing applications in Smartphones and Lidar applications for GaAs, as well as Datacom and Telecom applications for InP. Advanced thin-film deposition is critical for best performance e.g. efficiency or dark current and meeting highest reliability standards. High quality, dense and conformal layers deposited by ALD and integrated processes for surface control are addressing these challenges. Beyond traditional barrier against moisture ingress this paper describes leading edge ALD applications available at industrial scale: (1) advanced surface passivation for reduced Dit and (2) chip scale processing of sidewall reflector and CSP.
As the LED landscape moves from traditional LED to Mini and Micro LED form factors, the linewidth dimensions and spaces are shrinking. Pattern definition using Metal Lift-off becomes more challenging. A collaboration between vendors provides an opportunity to optimize the lithography, metallization and lift-off processes required for these smaller features. This is a continuation of work presented last year at CS Mantech. The current work is focusing on sub-500nm dimensions. As the line/space dimensions become smaller the resist thickness for the MLO structure becomes thinner. Optimizing the MLO structure and metallization parameters we have evaluated the metal thickness limits as a function of linewidth.
This presentation will focus on Plessey’s pioneering proprietary approach to enable manufacturing of monolithic microLED arrays using gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon (Si) technologies to develop better optimised AR/MR and wearable displays applications. It describes the problems associated with incumbent micro-display technologies which are prohibiting the advancement of new innovative technologies which microLEDs can help solve.
GaN and SiC Power devices are now commercially available, the next generation will be more complex structures and for wide scale adoption both technical challenges must be overcome and costs reduced. By focussed development and leveraging over 37 years of CS technology knowledge Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology has produced advanced remote Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PE ALD) and Plasma Etch solutions that give superior device performance and cost down per wafer. Remote PE ALD is used to create dense high k films for gate dielectrics and passivation. While Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) introduces a new paradigm in etch depth accuracy, essential for recessed GaN HEMTs. Working closely with our customers we ensure they have the tools to get the most out of their devices.
Expected market size growth especially of SiC-on-SiC based devices (key driver: automotive, e-mobility) and of GaN-on-SiC devices (key driver: 5G) placed several new challenges for improving the related MOCVD processes in yield, cost reduction and performance. In our contribution we focus on the newly developed capabilities of in-situ metrology for SiC-on-SiC structures (6” SiC wafer temperature sensing and wafer bow control) as grown in AIXTRON’s planetary warm-wall reactors. We further report on latest progress in multi-wavelength growth-rate control and improved absolute wafer temperature calibration for GaN-on-SiC MOCVD as well as on a latest break-through for GaN-on-Si wafer temperature sensing.
With the commercial availability of GaN-based power devices, the positioning of the technology versus next best silicon or SiC-based alternatives is a hot topic in the industry. Reliability aspects and system benefits are key issues driving the adoption of the technology. We will discuss a number of use cases such as hyper-scale datacenter and high-density telecom power supplies to outline decision factors in favor of GaN-based solutions. We will compare performance indicators towards the next best alternatives. The talk addresses both power supply engineers as well as market analysts and trend scouts.
Historically, silicon-based power semiconductors have served as the backbone of power systems, but wide bandgap (WBG) devices are changing this. As the market for these devices grow, it is important to understand what drives the commercial market to use WBG devices versus the more established Silicon technologies. WBG materials deliver results that aren’t possible with silicon in the areas of Power and RF. These improvements can have a significant impact in reducing overall electricity consumption worldwide, and in particular, SiC is enabling electric vehicles with longer range and lower cost. This adoption is driving a very rapid expansion for the SiC market and supply chain.
GaN-on-Silicon is a key technology to sustain future power converter systems roadmaps in the field of IT electronics, renewable solar and emission free automotive applications. Exagan implemented proprietary 200-mm GaN-on-Silicon technology to accelerate GaN market adoption. G-FET™ & G-Drive™ product portfolio, provide extensive power range capabilities, as well as power switching solutions that combine the super-fast GaN-on-Silicon switch with its appropriate driver IC controlled by embedded diagnostics, protections and, much more functionalities. Those “easy to use” GaN solutions will help power innovators extending power conversion roadmaps, by creating smaller, more efficient and higher-performing power converters.
GaN and SiC are well-known materials in the semiconductor industry for many years. However, their mass application is limited with cost/quality and scalability barriers. Here we give introduction on Alterphasic technology as a potential solution for breaking down the limitations. The report presents the latest results on - development of Alterphasic SiC-on-Si technology, - advantages of GaN growth on the substrate, - potential and scalability of the technology, - Applications development
DISCO has developed laser full cutting and laser grooving over the recent years as a pillar of Kiru (=dicing) technology, alongside blade dicing. Ablation laser cutting can be used for full-cut dicing of various materials such as thin Si and GaAs, Germanium substrates as well as for laser grooving of metal and Low-k material. Stealth Dicing on the other hand is modifying the workpiece from the inside, creating a modified layer by focusing a laser inside the workpiece. The workpiece can be separated by an expander afterwards almost without material loss. This method is mainly used for MEMS, Glass, and Sapphire. We will also introduce Laser based applications like LEAF (Laser Enhanced Ablation Filling) and LLO (Laser Lift Off) for µLED production. KABRA is a new laser cutting method for slicing SiC ingots instead of use of a wire saw. Approx. 40% more SiC wafers can be gained from one ingot. Finally DISCO’s CONDOx technology allows for thinning wafers of all kind of materials to a final Si thickness of 25 μm, even with 200 μm high bumps, without residues and any wafer breakage.
A factory is inherently made of moving parts in the form of process nodes. Led by complex statistical means and process-engineering expertise, a new set of models based on reinforcement learning and other deep-learning networks has the ability to transform factory optimization. Reinforcing agents in a factory environment allow for generative improvements in control and design, while maintaining predefined product-performance specifications. Examples of how this is being explored in Nanotronics’ labs and with partners will be presented, along with ideas of where the future for artificially intelligent factories is headed.
Fueled by global mega trends, compound semiconductors have reported substantial design wins in current and future volume market applications, among which power electronics is on the verge of a major shift from Silicon to SiC and GaN. In this regards, SiC semiconductors have gained an increased acceptance for automotive application during the last year, while GaN has already started penetrating consumer level applications. For becoming a sustainable and dominating solution in power electronics, both performance, reliability and cost requirements will need to be met at device level, but also at epitaxy level. Here we report on latest advances of epitaxy batch production technology for power electronics wide bandgap material including the newly launched AIX G5 WW C, which is a fully automated SiC 8x150 mm batch solution providing best throughput and lowest cost per wafer. At the same time individual wafer control ensures layer quality showing excellent uniformities and defects levels, so that customers’ performance and cost metrics are met as well as a fast ramp-up in the current dynamic environment is enabled.
This presentation will share key findings from the latest IHS Markit Technology report on Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride Power Semiconductors. It will present the likely key applications, pricing trends, the supplier landscape and the latest ten-year forecasts by application for both technologies. It will identify which technologies can compete with silicon in terms of device type and likely adoption by end applications. The SiC & GaN wafer substrate supply chain will also be discussed. Finally, I will try to answer the question: Are Cree/Wolfspeed's expansion plans (announced in May 2019) intended to monopolize the SiC market?
In recent years, GaN has become a forefront wide bandgap semiconductor material for nextgeneration, energy-efficient power electronics. With its higher breakdown strength, faster switching speed and lower on-resistance, GaN power devices can convert power far more efficiently than Si-based devices. While its performance is commercially demonstrated, widespread GaN adoption requires a scalable and high-yielding manufacturable technology platform enabling economies of scale and a full spectrum of low-cost products such as lateral and vertical power switches extending from 100V to 1,200V and beyond, monolithic ICs and rectifiers. QROMIS’ disruptive commercial solution to high volume, low cost and scalable GaN device manufacturing has been steadily gaining traction, owing to unique properties of speciallydesigned CMOS fab-friendly and semi-spec substrate called “QST®” (QROMIS Substrate Technology) with a core having a thermal expansion that very closely matches the thermal expansion of the GaN/AlGaN epitaxial layers. QST® enables breakage-free high-volume manufacturing of standard semi-spec thickness 200mm GaN device wafers (scalable to 300mm), covering all GaN applications including 100V-to-1800V high performance power devices, RF devices, and display microLEDs. In this talk, the following status updates on 200mm QST®-based materials and device technologies will be presented: (1) commercial QST® substrate products, (2) commercial GaNon-QST® epi-wafer products, including development studies on epi-wafers for 1,200V and beyond applications, (3) high-performance normally-off 650V p-GaN based GaN-on-QST® HEMT transistors & monolithic ICs (with integrated drivers and logic) fabricated in a CMOS fab and commercialization timelines, (4) 200mm GaN-on-QST® device foundry services for the industry players, and (5) initial high-performance GaN-on-QST® RF device results.
A major issue faced by the SiC industry is linked to the question of how to ramp up the production and meet the ever-growing demand of materials for the power electronics sector. In order to achieve this, the SiC wafer supply needs to develop a means to drive the cost of production down. One method of doing this is by improving yield. Silicon Carbide wafer growth and device manufacturing have improved significantly but the process yields are still too low due to the high densities of crystalline defects, particularly as substrate sizes increase, which are damaging the device performance and their long-term reliability. It is therefore critical to develop new metrology techniques that are capable of detecting these defects allowing to understand how they form and giving a means to reduce or eliminate them. We introduce high speed X-ray diffraction Imaging (XRDI, sometimes known as X-ray topography) as one of these techniques. It enables the non-destructive detection of the detrimental TSDs, TEDs, SFs and BPDs on all types of SiC wafers, including n+ doped substrates, without some of the limitations of existing etch and optical inspection methods. It is a viable candidate to replace destructive KOH etching in the long term as a defect metrology and reduce the cost of SiC wafers manufacturing. In this talk we will discuss the latest developments in XRDI which enable fully automated high throughput measurements at high resolution for integration into modern wafer production lines to enable direct feedback into the process development.
Awaiting presentation abstract.
GaN and SiC are well-known materials in the semiconductor industry and have been for many years. However, their mass application is limited with cost/quality and scalability barriers. Here we give an introduction to Alterphasic technology as a potential solution for breaking down the limitations. The report presents the latest results on - development of Alterphasic SiC-on-Si technology, - advantages of GaN growth on the substrate, - potential and scalability of the technology, - Applications development
Automotive market is an important market for electronics devices. The trend towards the electrification and the automation of cars create enormous market opportunity for compound semiconductor, including, Silicon Carbide (SiC), Gallium Nitride (GaN) , Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Indium Phosphide (InP), either for power electronics applications or sensing applications. In this presentation, we will give Yole’s understanding of compound semiconductor adoption by automotive market.
As compound semiconductor devices rapidly advance from novel, enabling technologies into mainstream products, economic realities long familiar to logic and memory markets figure prominently. Whereas function historically trumped process efficiency in an industry dominated by technology, unit process costs and device yield present new requirements to a burgeoning manufacturing industry - especially so for automotive and military applications. Formation of features in gold now rises in prominence not just as a necessary process step, but as a target for simultaneous improvement in throughput, per wafer costs and yield. This presentation describes how electrochemical deposition of gold readily enables all three.
Blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are strongly desired for many applications, including adaptive laser headlamps, retinal scanning displays, visible light communication systems, and processing of metals such as copper and gold. For many applications, high output powers and low-divergence output beams are preferred because they allow high efficiency fiber coupling and high optical density to be realized with very simple optics. This presentation will focus on recent progress in high power and mode control technologies of blue VCSELs and VCSEL arrays.
Conditions are changing rapidly in today's semiconductor manufacturing market. A convergence of emerging technologies — primarily 5G, IoT, AI, and AV — has forever changed the electronics industry. While this boom is good news for the semiconductor industry, the wide variety of applications put pressure on companies to meet multiple benchmark qualifications. Manufacturers must validate reliability performance to standards of each industry. Add the fact that the semiconductor market has an established history of strict reliability standards, and companies face a seemingly impossible uphill climb. How can the technical team arm sales and marketing with hard data to convince customers that new, un-fielded products will work in the intended environment?
Electromobility is transforming our automotive industry, and soon enough, the quest for a greener future will influence all power electronics designs. Due to the physical-electrical properties’ limitations of silicon material, it will no longer meet the higher power density requirements while keeping satisfactory power conversion efficiency needed for a higher energy standard. Recognizing the challenges our industry is facing, we will elaborate on the benefits of WBG technology and our efforts in supporting the demand of SiC devices from the mass market.
Now in production across several application markets, high voltage GaN has piqued the interest of hybrid and electric vehicle manufacturers. The technology’s proven ability to increase power density within various topologies as well as its attractive cost model have positioned GaN to reportedly cannibalize the on-board charger market currently attributed to SiC. The key to realizing this projection is the technology’s reliablity. Learn about the importance of extended validation tests, GaN’s current FIT rates and temperature ratings, and how a deep focus on reliability enables volume production from Transphorm—manufacturer of the industry’s first AEC-Q101 GaN FET.
A matured flip process to make 4” GaN/Diamond epitaxial wafer is driven by a need of commercialization for GaN/Diamond HEMTs. RFHIC announced that the power density of 23.2 W/mm at Vds = 100V is obtained at 2 GHz pulsed power measurement using on-wafer 4” GaN/Diamond HEMT manufactured at automation foundry FAB. The 0.35 um GaN/Diamond HEMT revealed Pout of 21.94 W/mm (at Vds = 100 V), 17.88 W/mm (at Vds = 100 V) in the frequency range of 3.6 GHz and 4.9 GHz, respectively. To make an improving yield and process consistency, RFHIC is developing permanent wafer bonding technology for GaN/Diamond HEMT processing not only for SiN passivation but also high temperature annealing without requiring a de-bonding step. A new type of flip process technology to make GaN/Diamond epitaxial wafer using GaN/SiC epitaxial wafer will be sure to generate a better quality of GaN/Diamond HEMT in the future.
Awaiting presentation abstract.
Awaiting presentation abstract.
