Mass production starts for 650V GaN on 200mm ceramic substrates
Vanguard International Semiconductor (VIS) in Taiwan has started mass production of the first 650V gallium nitride power chips on an innovative ceramic substrate.
The parts are built on a 200mm 0.35 µm 650 V GaN process technology platform that has completed customer-end verification of system and reliability for its first batch of products, and officially entered the mass production phase for 65W smartphone fast chargers.
VIS is the first specialty IC foundry service provider to mass-produce the wafers. VIS licensed the technology from Qromis in the US in 2018. This GaN-on-QST (Qromis Substrate Technology) process uses a ceramic substrate with a thermal coefficient of expansion (CTE) that matches the GaN epi-layers, and the wafer warpage is less problematic in the manufacturing process, which is beneficial for the mass production.
The VIS 0.35 µm 650 V GaN-on-QST processing technology is compatible with existing 200mm CMOS silicon wafer equipment, achieving the most optimal production efficiency and product yield performance.
VIS has simultaneously launched several collaborations with domestic and overseas integrated design manufacturing (IDM) vendors and IC design companies.
“Our 0.35 µm 650 V GaN-on-QST process has advantage in performances and reliability to not only offer customers a more optimized IC design option, but also enhance the competitiveness of customers’ products,” said Dr. John Wei, Chief Operating Officer of VIS.
The 0.35 µm GaN-on-QST process also offers add-on and robust ESD as a flexible design option., and VIS is working with with multiple customers for development of scalable device technologies for higher voltage applications over 1kV.
VIS has five 8-inch fabs in Taiwan and Singapore with a monthly capacity of about 262,000 wafers in 2022. Shin-Etsu in Japan has also licensed the technology for 200mm wafers, and Kyma Technologies in Raleigh, North Carolina also produces 200mm GaN-on-QST wafers.
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