Getting Wide Bandgap Semiconductors done

Earlier this month I took the train from Neubiberg/Germany (where Infineon is headquartered) to Villach/Austria. However, I neither want to talk about the great weather there while we had a grey autumn sky in Munich, nor about the greatest view at the I alps I ever had from a meeting room, which can be distracting during a Q&A session. Villach is the center of gravity for Infineon’s power semiconductor development, and it was very impressive to see POWER semiconductor manufacturing on 300 mm wafers during my tour in a bunny suit through the fully automated wafer fab.

In power semiconductor manufacturing we talk more about 100 nm than 3 nm technology, but one fact really fascinated me: In GaN semiconductors the GaN layer is added to a silicon wafer in an epitactical process, however, there is a huge problem, because the crystal lattice of Si and GaN have a 17 % mismatch. Across the diameter of a 300 mm wafer (Infineon now manufactures GaN on 300 mm) this results in pressure forces in the GigaPascal range. 1 GPa is roughly 9 times the pressure that exists at the deepest point on earth, in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean almost 11 km below sea level. Despite this enormous pressure, the GaN-on-Si wafers undergo over 1,000 individual process steps involving numerous heat/cold cycles before becoming the finished product you can use in your designs.

You too may marvel at this, but at Bodo’s Wide Bandgap Event we will go one step further, because then it's a question of how GaN and SiC components can be best used and integrated into end product designs. On the second day of Bodoswbg.com, which takes place on December 2 &3 at the Munich Airport Hilton, you will be able to listen to more than 40 live-presentations from industry experts in two parallel, synchronously clocked tracks on GaN and SiC. Every 10-minute presentation is followed by 5 minutes of Q&A. So it’ll be a powerful, intensive and very useful day providing many practice-oriented inputs.

One of my personal highlights is the panel discussion on day 1, where six high-level executives from major SiC and GaN manufacturers as well as the director of the inverter department at one of the leading automotive tier-1 manufacturers will discuss with Bodo and myself how we can make wide bandgap designs happen.

If you still register in the first days of November, you will be eligible for the discounted early bird offer. Furthermore, some very few companies have the opportunity to present their solutions and services in the table-top exhibition.

Bodo’s magazine is delivered by postal service to all places in the world. It is the only magazine that spreads technical information on power electronics globally. We have EETech as a partner serving our clients in North America. If you speak the language, or just want to have a look, don’t miss our Chinese version at bodospowerchina.com. An archive, of every issue of the magazine, is available for free at our website bodospower.com.

My Green Tip of the Month:
Check out footprintcalculator.org and think about the result. If you live in the US, you might want to visit epa.gov/ghgemissions/carbon-footprint-calculator, where they also provide an offline calculator in spreadsheet format.
Kind Regards,
Alfred