Ein interessanter Artikel von Research Hub über das Thema.
https://www.research-hub.de/companies/AIXTRON%2520SEEin User aus w:o Forum hat ihn gepostet. Credits go to him.
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300mm GaN, what is Aixtron?s potential? BUY
Infineon pilots 300mm GaN. Infineon announced yesterday that it has successfully produced 300mm GaN wafers on an integrated pilot line at its silicon fab in Villach, Austria. It is industry standard that GaN devices are grown on silicon substrates (heteroepitaxy), unlike SiC which is mostly grown on SiC substrates. This is a major advantage of GaN as silicon wafers are widely available and relatively cheap. However, the lattice mismatch and different thermal expansion coefficients of GaN and Si present some challenges that are typically overcome by buffer layers. Partly because of these challenges, volume production of GaN devices has so far been on 150mm and 200mm wafers, with 300mm production limited to experimental lines.
Can Infineon do it without MOCVD? Infineon's press release seems to have been read by some investors as suggesting that GaN production will take place on the same equipment as the silicon process. This would be bad news for suppliers of MOCVD equipment that is not used for standard silicon chips. So, is there a deposition process for the epitaxy that could have been performed on equipment more commonly used for the silicon chips? Several epitaxial processes other than MOCVD have been used to form the epilayers of III-V compound semiconductors, including liquid phase epitaxy, molecular beam epitaxy, chemical beam epitaxy and atomic layer epitaxy. Some of these are performed on equipment commonly used in silicon chip manufacturing. However, these techniques present challenges in terms of defect levels and scalability when applied to the GaN process, so it can almost be ruled out that they find their way into the epitaxial process for mass production of 300mm GaN.
Is there a risk that Aixtron is late to 300mm GaN? Another concern is that Aixtron is late to 300mm GaN, as the current G10 is only advertised for 150mm and 200mm. Of the competitors (Veeco, Amec, Taiyo Nippon Sanso and Nuflare), only Veeco is currently advertising a 300mm single-wafer GaN system ("Propel 300mm"). However, Aixtron yesterday emphasized that it is working on 300mm GaN systems and that pilot systems are in operation at some customers, although it is not clear whether Infineon is one of them. Aixtron has been developing a 300mm system in the EU's YESvGaN project since 2021 and is also rumored to have supplied a 300mm system to Chinese GaN wafer epi foundry Enkris. So Aixtron currently has one foot in the door. In any case, it will take years to scale up the pilot line to mass production.
The potential of GaN is growing with 300mm. GaN is currently widely used in fast chargers for mobile devices, but is also increasingly used in other consumer electronics products, such as power supplies for televisions and games consoles, because of its ability to reduce power consumption and heat generation. For the same reason, GaN-based power supplies are increasingly being used in data centers, where energy costs and heat generation are key challenges in maintaining large server farms. The reduced costs of 300mm production should accelerate the adoption of GaN, which should also be good news for the equipment suppliers.
BUY, PT EUR 29.00. We leave our estimates unchanged and reiterate our BUY recommendation with a price target of EUR 29.00.