NSF Award
0646586
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop and scale-up an industrially robust and low cost chemical mechanical smoothening<br/>(CMS) process to produce atomically polished gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon substrates for high power and high frequency applications. As GaN is mechanically hard and<br/>chemically inert, traditional surface polishing processes have resulted in significant<br/>surface damage which negatively affects the electrical performance. In contrast, the CMS<br/>process forms a soft layer on GaN surface which can be removed by nanoparticles. In the<br/>Phase II of this project, the company plans to further optimize and scale-up the CMS<br/>process. In conjunction with the compound semiconductor chip manufacturers and<br/>academic partners, the company's plan is to further validate the polishing technology by<br/>fabricating and testing the performance of high electron mobility transistors. The research<br/>team members are internationally recognized experts and are in an excellent position to<br/>execute the research plan and attain the project goals.<br/><br/>The commercialization of the proposed polishing technology is expected to significantly<br/>impact GaN based semiconductor technology used for high frequency, high power<br/>microwave devices in wireless mobile communication and radar defense systems. This<br/>process will accelerate commercialization of GaN on silicon technology by increasing<br/>yield and reducing manufacturing costs.
