Siltronic ramps up GaN wafer activities with AIXTRON system

Herzogenrath/Germany, August 25, 2020 – Siltronic AG strengthens its GaN on Silicon wafer activities with an AIX G5+ C system of AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIXA), a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry. The AIX G5+ C system is fully automated and equipped with in-situ cleaning and a cassette-to-cassette transfer module for best epitaxial stability and unmatched low defect ratios. The State-of-the-art Planetary Reactor® includes AIXTRON’s Auto-Feed Forward (AFF) individual on-wafer temperature control and has an 8x150-mm and 5x200-mm configuration. The system will be shipped to the customer in the fourth quarter of this year.

Wafer equipment for growing megatrends  

Siltronic is a leading supplier of silicon wafers for the semiconductor industry and will use the additional epitaxy reactor to strengthen its position for the emerging GaN-on-Si market. The AIX G5+ C will be used by Siltronic for the production of 150 and 200 mm Gallium Nitride-on-Silicon (GaN-on-Si) epi wafer for Radio Frequency (RF) and power applications.

RF, power devices and circuit are enabling high switching frequencies and efficient energy management with high power densities. These features are required for rapidly growing applications such as data centers, renewable energy and the next generation of wireless networks (5G). Alongside the smaller form factor, GaN-on-Si is an ideal candidate for rapid charging and car electrification.

Chosen by the best in the industry 

Dr. Christoph von Plotho, CEO of Siltronic AG, says: “The GaN-on-Si market is an important future growth field. We have been very active early on within the GaN Power Program of imec, the research institute for nanoelectronics, to provide our customers with leading edge performance. To position ourselves competitively in this market, we need a reactor which allows us to deliver our customers with the best performance epi-wafers while ramping up volume at lowest costs. We see the AIX G5+ C as the ideal solution in this regard both for GaN Power and RF devices to serve the growing applications and megatrends. The use of GaN-on-Si technology also makes a central contribution to improving the energy balance through decarbonization”. 

“The GaN-on-Si technology has made impressive breakthrough in the last years and devices are rapidly gaining acceptance into both consumer and industrial products for power and RF application. The AIX G5+ C is a fully mature platform dedicated to these advanced applications, and it’s fantastic that we can accompany our customers to unlock these new markets”, says Dr. Felix Grawert, President of AIXTRON. 

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