AIXTRON SE announced that US company Transphorm Inc. is stepping up production of gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) with its latest order of AIXTRON’s G5+ MOCVD system, capable of handling five 200 mm (5x8-inch) wafers.

The order was made in the fourth quarter of 2012 with delivery due in the second quarter of 2013.

Primit Parikh, President of Transphorm comments: “We are not just increasing our capacity with this order. This new system also expands our capability from 150 mm to 200 mm diameter wafers, providing economies of scale. We are projecting lower costs of ownership with larger wafer diameters, allowing us to bring this transformative technology into much wider use.”

Dr. Frank Wischmeyer, Vice President and Program Manager Power Electronics at AIXTRON, comments: “When we developed the AIXTRON G5+ system we had customers like Transphorm in mind. GaN-on-Si is rapidly developing and the industry expects commercial products in the near future. In order to be successful, GaN-on-Si needs to deliver the highest quality at the lowest cost of ownership. We have developed the G5+ to deliver extremely stable, uniform processing on multiple large diameter wafer runs.”

Transphorm ordered its first AIXTRON system in 2010, an AIX 2800G4 HT system in a 6x150 mm wafer configuration. Parikh adds: “Due to the performance of our existing system, we expect to be able to scale up to the larger diameter wafers smoothly and quickly.”

The AIX G5+ is based on the proven AIX G5 HT reactor platform. The stability and uniformity of results in this system enable higher device yields than for any other MOCVD platform on the market.

Transphorm is redefining electric power conversion, providing easy-to-embed power conversion devices and modules that reduce costly energy loss by more than 50% percent; at an affordable system cost. Transphorm’s GaN based solutions simplify the design and manufacturing of power supplies, PV inverters/power conditioners, motor drives, and electric vehicles.