Picosun, NCTU Invest in New ALD Facility in Taiwan

The National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Taiwan and Picosun, provider of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) solutions, partner to build a research laboratory for next generation of micro- and optoelectronics using ALD technology. The Joint Industrial ALD Research Laboratory will be located at the X-Photonics Interdisciplinary Centre in the NCTU premises.

With this collaboration, NCTU and Picosun will develop a wide range of technology solutions for applications such as microelectronic devices for 7nm technology node, high-brightness light emitting diodes (HBLED), and high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). The ALD research laboratory will be geared at conducting fundamental research and advanced device fabrication for industrial applications.

"It's obvious that Picosun, with their world-leading experience in ALD system design and process knowhow, has been chosen as our ALD technology provider. We are happy and excited to start this collaboration to realize a whole new generation of micro- and optoelectronic products," said Professor Hao-Chung Kuo, associate VP of NCTU, and both IEEE and OSA fellow.

"Taiwan is one of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturing hubs. Picosun's state-of-the-art ALD technology is a key enabler for advanced micro- and optoelectronics fabrication. Establishing a partnership and a joint research laboratory with NCTU will provide our existing and future industry customers not only local access to our technology for their applications, but also stronger collaboration ties for future generation products enabled by our ALD technology. This is further supported by our newest subsidiary, Picosun Taiwan, which was established two months ago," said Dr. Wei-Min Li, CEO of Picosun Asia and Applications director of Picosun Group.

Skysilicon Makes GaN Power Device on 8-inch GaN-on-Si Wafer

Skysilicon, based in China, has released what it claims is the first GaN metal insulator semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (MISHEMT), N1BH60010A on an 8-inch GaN-on-Si wafer. This is the first 8-inch based GaN power device reported in China.

Skysilicon began the research on the GaN-on-Si power devices in July 2013. After 18 months of development, recently it successfully developed 600V/10A GaN MISHEMT on 8-inch silicon substrates, showing good switching characteristics and small parasitic capacitance, such as ID > 10 A, ID, pulse = 35 A (Pulse width = 600 µs), VDSS = 600 V, RDS(on) = 0.27 Ω, IDSS < 10 µA (VDS = 600 V), IGSS < 10 nA (VGS = -10 V), CISS = 52pF, COSS = 26 pF and CRSS = 21 pF.

Compared to a silicon super junction MOSFET, the GaN MISHEMT can reduce parasitic capacitance up to 90 percent says Skysilicon. Meanwhile the reverse recovery charge can be eliminated as there is no PN junction in the GaN device. Compared to other GaN power device suppliers, the main characteristics of Skysilicon's GaN power device is comparable or even better on off-state leakage and parasitic capacitance, says the company.

The GaN research program in Skysilicon is funded by Chinese National Science and Technology Major Project (NSTMP), aiming to develop 8-inch based GaN-on-Si power devices and technologies.

Skysilicon is a semiconductor device manufacturer focused on power electronics. The main products of Skysilicon are discrete power device and power IC, MEMS sensors and compound semiconductor devices. The company built the GaN-on-Si power device platform on its own 8-inch manufactory line, which is suitable for high volume production

SMIC, Start-Up Group Manufacture CMOS Image Sensors

In partnership with Chinese foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), Shanghai-based start-up group Cista System Corp. started mass production of two CMOS image sensors (CIS).

Undergoing mass production are the 1.3Mpx and 8Mpx CIS, which measure 1.75µm pixel and 1.4µm pixel, respectively. Both sensors feature back-side illumination (BSI) and are based on SMIC's 0.13µm BSI technology platform.

Based on a low leakage process, SMIC's BSI process only uses three aluminum metal layers for reduced cost and supports pixel sizes down to 1.4µm for 8Mpx-resolution CIS. SMIC also provides full in-house turn-key service, which includes CIS wafer fabrication, color filter and microlens processing, TSV-CSP and testing to help customers shorten the supply chain with fast cycle time and low cost.

"Through working with our partner, Cista System Corp., we are very pleased with the achievement of the production phase for BSI technology," said Shiuh-Wuu Lee, executive vice president of technology development of SMIC. "Tests on the two sensors have shown great performance, which demonstrates our readiness in 0.13µm BSI technology platform. SMIC is also developing 1.1µm pixel BSI for 13-megapixel resolution and above and 3D stacked BSI for high-end applications. With these new sets of products, we hope to provide high-quality CMOS image sensors to our customers at a competitive price."

Cista CEO Wilson Du said, "As we move forward, we hope to see more of our designs used in wider applications such as consumer electronics, telecommunications, medical equipment, automotive industry, automation and other applications."

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