At German based Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (Fraunhofer IISB) an aluminum nitride (AlN) crystal with a diameter of 43 mm in technology-relevant quality has been grown. This result is a substantial step to reach the important milestone inside the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) funded project LeitBAN (Power transistors based on AlN) to demonstrate a 2 inch diameter AlN crystal by the end of 2022 and to deliver 2 inch AlN wafers to the consortium.
This achievement was possible by the support of the BMBF FMD initiative.
The availability of AlN crystals respectively AlN wafers in sufficient size and quality is the key for the manufacturing of high performance AlN-based electronic devices.
Aluminum nitride as a semiconductor offers an extreme breakdown field strength, a high material quality, a low amount of defects and a very good thermal conductivity.
Due to the special physical properties of AlN, AlN-based devices for power electronics can achieve a performance beyond that of silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN).
Thus, AlN is suitable for the processing of super-low loss power transistors and has the potential to become the most important Ultra Wide Band Gap (UWBG) semiconductor for power electronics in the future.
