Kyma Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of ultra-high purity crystalline gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) materials and related products and services, has partnered with Caracal Inc. and the Penn State Electro-Optics Center to help Kyma respond to growing demand for its low defect density nonpolar native GaN substrates.
Commercial demand for nonpolar native GaN is growing rapidly because of its promise to enable better performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. To satisfy that growing demand, Kyma solicited the aid of Caracal, a leading developer of crystalline silicon carbide (SiC) technology, and the Penn State Electro-Optics Center (EOC), both based in Western Pennsylvania, to help Kyma to work through a backend process bottleneck.
Kyma CEO Dr. Keith Evans noted, "We joined EOC's Electro-Optics Alliance (EOA) early in 2006 and have enjoyed a number of very positive collaborative interactions with EOC ever since. Dr. Bill Everson of EOC has a rich experience base in single crystal semiconductor processing across a broad materials spectrum and has been enormously helpful. Our relationship with Caracal began earlier this year and is already very valuable, due to the energy and experience of Dr. Olle Kordina, Caracal's founder and CTO, and Dr. Igor Agafonov, Caracal's semiconductor processing expert. We look forward to continuing these efforts and to the possibility of many more future opportunities to work with both EOC and Caracal."
Dr. Ed Preble, Kyma COO, added, "We are pleased to be able to respond to our customers' growing needs for high quality nonpolar GaN with improved crystalline orientation control. Our partnerships with both Caracal and EOC have proven to be of great value in terms of increasing our effective manufacturing capability and capacity."
Kyma's nonpolar GaN substrate manufacturing technology will be the subject of an Invited Talk at the International Workshop on Bulk Nitride Semiconductors (IWBNS-V), to be held September 24-28, 2007 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The talk will be given by Dr. Drew Hanser, Kyma's CTO and VP Business Development. See http://iwbns.jpn.org/ for more information about the conference.
About Caracal
Caracal Inc. is an advanced semiconductor materials company that will manufacture and distribute silicon carbide-based semiconductors. These devices will enable solutions which are currently impossible using standard silicon technology in a wide range of consumer, defense and industrial applications. In partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Borough of Ford City and the federal government, the company recently transformed an abandoned PPG brownfield site in Ford City into a 10,000 Sq. Ft. state-of-the-art facility for manufacturing Silicon Carbide wafers.
For more information about Caracal, visit their website at www.caracalsemi.com or call them directly at 724-763-2111.
About Electro-Optics Center
The Penn State Electro-Optics Center serves as a national resource to advance electro-optics and related technologies by partnering with government and commercial customers for the primary benefit of the U.S. warfighter.
Created in 1999 under a cooperative agreement with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and managed by Penn State University, The Penn State Electro-Optics Center (EOC) promotes the development of electro-optic materials, components, and systems needed to advance the state-of-the-art in electro-optic science and technology for our defense forces.
EOC-sponsored programs include research and development, manufacturing process development and improvement, and the active transfer of new and/or improved technology to its commercial partners. The EOC focuses its continuing efforts in the following:
. EO Materials Design and Process Technology
. Sensor Technology
. Reliability and Failure Analysis
. Laser Technology
. Fiber Optics and Photonics
. Education and Outreach
For more information about EOC, visit their website www.eoc.psu.edu or call them directly at 724-295-7000.
About Kyma Technologies
Kyma spun out of North Carolina State University's Materials Science and Engineering Department in 1998 to pursue the development of gallium nitride (GaN) and aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates for a broad range of high performance nitride semiconductor device applications. Kyma's substrates have great potential to enable critically needed improvements in device cost, performance, and reliability and thus are expected to replace most foreign substrates such as sapphire and silicon carbide for the most demanding applications.
Kyma's diversified product offering includes: ultra-low defect density native (free-standing) GaN in customer-defined orientation including polar (c-plane Ga-face or N-face) and non-polar (a-plane and m-plane), GaN and AlN templates grown on sapphire and other substrates, and ultra-high purity polycrystalline GaN.
The market for nitride semiconductor devices is expected to surpass $9B by 2010. The combined addressable market for GaN and AlN substrates is expected to surpass $500M by 2010.
For more information about Kyma Technologies, please visit our website www.kymatech.com, send us e-mail at info@kymatech.com, or call the company directly at 919.789.8880.
Kyma is a registered trademark of Kyma Technologies, Inc.