Wide Bandgap Alliance Formed in Taiwan

Taipei, March 9, 2011 (CENS)--A total of 20 organizations in Taiwan recently formed an alliance to develop wide bandgap electronics devices, including silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) compound semiconductors, for use in high-power electronics applications as electric cars and LEDs.

The alliance projects to roll out application modules of these wide bandgap semiconductors, whose electronic band gaps are larger than one or two electronvolts (eV). Wide bandgap materials are often utilized in applications in which high-temperature and high-power operation is the nature, which is beyond the endurance of narrow bandgap materials like pure silicon.

The organizations include the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), chipmaker Vanguard International Semiconductor Crop. (VISC) and LED maker Epistar Corp.

Alliance members are divided into groups to develop substrate materials, epitaxy wafers, devices, modules and inspection technologies according to their professions. They plan to complete packaging and test verifications on 600-volt devices by the end of this year. Three years later, the alliance will start developing application modules for use in electric cars, photovoltaic system, distributed energy system and inverter air conditioner.

ITRI executives pointed out that many organizations throughout the world have ventured into the development of wide bandgap technologies in a bid to improve the efficiency of power consumption worldwide. The institute forecasts revenue of the market for SiC semiconductors will increase at an annual rate of 50% from 2013, to US$1.83 billion in 2019.