All about Silicon vs. Gallium Nitride (GaN) Wafers

For about 60 years silicon has been the basis of semiconductor technology. Over half a century, in semiconductor applications, a GaN wafer manufacturer has prepared vast strides.

Crystal Structure of GaN-

Gallium nitride is manufactured using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD and it is a wurtzite crystal structured semiconductor. In this process, to form the crystal gallium and nitrogen are combined. For this, there are various mixtures but one example is the use of ammonia (NH3) is employed in GaN synthesis as the nitrogen and trimethylgallium as a gallium source.

There are some uniformity issues in the crystalline structure of GaN’s; sometimes you will find millions of defects per centimeter range. In reducing the number of defects per centimeter to anywhere between 100 and 1000 the most modern MOCVD techniques have been used and allow them to grow and use larger GaN crystals as wafers. The compound that is formed when scientists can synthesize GaN wafer to a low degree of an error has several distinct crystalline properties that in semiconductor applications provide its desirable traits.

Breakdown Field of GaN

Silicon has a breakdown field of 0.3 MV/cm and GaN's breakdown field is 3.3 MV/cm. Because of this reason, gallium nitride becomes ten times more capable of supporting high voltage designs before failing. A higher breakdown field indicates that over silicon in high voltage circuits such as high-power products gallium nitride is superior. In similar voltage applications, GaN wafer supplier and engineers can also use GaN along with maintaining a significantly smaller footprint.

GaN Electron Mobility vs. Silicon

As compared to silicon's electrons the electrons in gallium nitride crystals can move over 30% faster. In RF components this electron mobility gives gallium nitride a distinct benefit for use, as compared to silicon it can handle higher switching frequencies.

Benefits of GaN

Over silicon one of the most significant benefits of gallium nitride are its bandgap, which provides it various electrical properties that prepare it for higher power applications. However, the GaN wafer has a bandgap that's nearly triple silicon’s than to excite a valence electron into the conducting band of the semiconductor uses significantly more energy.