How Gan changes the future of semiconductors

The global scarcity of semiconductors delay the production of all refrigerators and microwaves to game consoles and smartphones. Experts say it could take months for the industry to recover, but in reality, the shortage changes electronic consumption forever.

The industry is based on silicon for decades, but the shortage of chips helps to make electronic devices more ecological, more efficient and smaller. More and more companies are turning to gallium nitride (GAN) because it is easier and faster to produce than silicon chips, among other benefits.

Techradar Pro spoke to Stephen Oliver, business marketing and investors at Navitas Semiconductor, to find out how the scarcity has an impact on consumer electronics and the transfer of the industry away from the silicon. Navitas provides GAN tokens with companies, including Anker, Aukey, Belkin, Dell, Hyper, Lenovo, Oppo, Ravower, Verizon and dozens of others.

What is GAN and why is it so important?

Combination of gallium (atomic number 31) and nitrogen (atomic number 7), gallium nitride (GAN) is a wide semiconductor strip semiconductor material with a hard and hexagonal crystalline structure. Bandgap is the energy needed to release an electron from its orbit around the core and, at 3.4 EV, the bandwidth of gallium nitride is greater than three times that of silicon, so the “wide” of the “wide” designation “wide” “or WBG.

As Bandgap determines the electric field that can withstand a material, the gallium nitride bandwidth makes it possible to develop semiconductors with very short or narrow depletion regions, leading to device structures at a very high carrier density. . With much smaller transistors and shorter power paths, resistance and ultra-low capacity are obtained, allowing a maximum speed of 100 times faster.

The bottom line is that GAN technology can handle larger electrical fields in a much smaller form factor than conventional silicon while providing significantly faster switching. In addition, Gan Technologies can operate at higher maximum temperatures than their silicon-based counterparts.

GAN is of great importance because of its ability to provide significantly improved performance in a wide range of applications while reducing the energy and physical space needed to provide these performance compared to conventional silicon technologies. In some applications where the silicon as a power conversion platform has hit its physical limits, gallium nitride technologies become essential, while in others the advantages of efficiency, speed of switching speed. , high temperature size and operation combine to make Gan more and more attractive.

As a global need for energy increases, a move to GAN technology will help meet the demand while maintaining carbon emissions at a minimum. Indeed, GAN design and integration provide new generation power semiconductors with a carbon footprint ten times lower than silicon fries more. To further support the case for GAN, it is estimated that a global upgrade from the SI-GAN data center would reduce energy loss by 30 to 40%, which would save more than 100 TWHR and 125 million. tons of CO2 emissions by 2030.

How does Gallium do?

Gallium does not exist of elemental nature. It is generally derived as a by-product of the melting of aluminum bauxite ore and the transformation of the sphalerite ore for zinc, therefore has a very low extraction and refinement of the carbon footprint.