The Clean Energy Revolution is one of the mega trends that’s driving huge demand for semiconductors today and we see it only getting bigger in the future. The three areas of transitions happening in this space are electric vehicles, renewable energy, and smart grid technologies. Silicon based technologies have been supporting the power semiconductor demand in these specific applications, but the two material systems that recently took the industry by a storm with their superior material properties over Silicon are Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN). The emergence of electric vehicles has boosted the need for efficient power conversion technologies like SiC MOSFETs and GaN HEMTs (high electron mobility transistors). These devices are driving higher power conversion efficiencies and higher power densities in applications like traction inverters, on-board chargers, and dc-dc converters. With the inception of SiC MOSFETs into traction inverters for electric vehicles, the SiC industry jumped on a very steep growth trajectory that is driving innovations in wafer scaling, device architectures and high-volume manufacturing, simultaneously. Similarly, the introduction of GaN HEMTs into consumer chargers has demonstrated its capability of high-power densities for low-voltage applications and the industry is working on translating these benefits to applications in electric vehicles like on-board chargers and dc-dc converters. Some of the key challenges the compound semiconductor industry is facing today are speed of innovation, increasing device complexity, reliability, and yield. In this presentation, we will introduce Applied Materials process solutions for SiC and GaN power devices. We will share some examples on how we address some of the key challenges in these technologies and help accelerate their path to high-volume manufacturing.
Shiva Rai, Director of Technology at Applied Materials, leads the technology development and strategic initiatives in compound semiconductor and photonics applications. In this role, he is responsible for driving process solutions in GaN/SiC power devices, III-V based RF devices, III-V opto and Silicon Photonic platforms. Over the past 18+ years, he has held various positions in multiple compound semiconductor industries including LEDs, Lasers and Solar Cells, leading technology advancements in MOCVD epitaxy/hardware design, device processing and product development. Prior to Applied Materials, he has worked at Bridgelux, Lumileds, Epiworks/II-VI and Izar Solar, a startup company where he led the dilute-nitride based solar cell technology development. Shiva received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Univ. of South Carolina and MBA in Marketing and Corporate Strategy from Arizona State University.