Atomic layer deposition (ALD) thin-film technology firm Picosun Oy of Espoo, Finland, Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and Atom Semicon Co Ltd of New Taipei City, Taiwan have begun a joint collaboration on the improvement of gallium nitride (GaN) devices using Picosun’s ALD technology. The collaboration was announced by Xiaopeng Wu, CEO of Picosun Asia, and professor Hao-Chung Kuo of NCTU’s Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering at the 3rd ALD Taiwan workshop on 23 June.
The three-way collaboration aims to directly support manufacturers working with GaN technology. Picosun says that intelligent ALD solutions can improve the performance and reliability of devices and speed up the R&D phase of novel components, shortening the time-to-market of the products.
“Picosun is our long-term, trusted partner in ALD. We have used our PICOSUN ALD equipment for years to develop state-of-the-art GaN technology,” says Kuo. “Globally, Taiwan is a key hub for semiconductor manufacturing, and our close contacts with the prominent industries in the field facilitate short ramp-up times for novel innovations. Picosun’s ALD technology supports this with its upscalability and the leading variety of equipment from R&D phase to fully automated, large-scale production,” he comments.
“These devices are crucial when energy consumption and size of the power module have to be minimized,” says Picosun Asia’s chief technology officer Dr Kevin Lin. “Picosun's goal is to provide comprehensive, production-proven ALD solutions to the manufacturers to improve the efficiency, reliability, and operating life of their devices,” he adds.
“The collaboration between NCTU and Picosun has always been a success regarding novel, industrial applications of ALD,” notes Bob Lin, VP of Atom Semicon. “It’s quite important to leverage this to create new value for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry… We will soon see yet more breakthroughs in reliable GaN HEMT [high-electron-mobility transistors] technology.”
