Kyma Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of wide bandgap semiconductor (WBGS) materials technologies, has accelerated its development of certain WBGS materials and devices, thanks to collaboration with the Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory.

Kyma’s partnership with Argonne was catalyzed by the Energy Department’s Technologist in Residence (TIR) program, an initiative designed to catalyze strong national laboratory-industry relationships that result in significant growth in high-impact early-stage research and development. Argonne was selected in 2016, in conjunction with Kyma, to participate in the second cohort of the program. Through the TIR program, Kyma and other industry partners will work across the national lab system develop long-term strategic collaborative partnerships and impactful manufacturing solutions.

For Kyma and Argonne this has resulted in two key collaborations - one focused on novel semiconductor materials and the other on novel semiconductor devices - and both collaborations continue today.

The materials collaboration is focused on improving the understanding of Kyma’s novel crystalline gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) materials for applications to power electronics. The team will present some of their most recent findings on conduction band offsets between Ga₂O₃ and novel dielectric films created using Argonne’s advanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology at the upcoming Electronic Materials Conference (EMC) to be held in Santa Barbara from June 27-29, 2018.

The device collaboration is focused on the modeling and simulation of novel gallium nitride (GaN) devices being developed at Kyma and leverages Argonne’s state of the art device simulation capabilities. The results of this collaboration provide important input into the detailed design and topology of the devices being fabricated by Kyma.

Both of these collaborations are aimed toward the development of a new generation of smaller, more robust, and more energy efficient power switching electronics which could find their way into a number of applications including hybrid and electric vehicles, lighting, data servers, AC adapters, solar & wind inverters, power supplies, smart grid, and charging circuits. Success in these efforts will enable large energy savings and reduced reliance on fossil fuels and reduced anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

Kyma president & CEO Dr. Keith Evans commented, “The DOE TIR program provides an opportunity for Kyma to better understand and capitalize on important new collaboration opportunities with leading scientists and to benefit from state-of-the-art capabilities housed within our nation’s DOE Laboratory System. The Argonne team, led by Dr. John Hryn and Dr. Angel Yanguas-Gil, have deep scientific expertise and have been invaluable in helping us solve difficult problems that are inherent to this kind of cutting edge research and development.”

Dr. John Hryn, senior advisor for program development to the Energy and Global Security Directorate at Argonne, added, “Argonne has participated in the TIR program since it was started in 2015 and it has served as a great catalyst for our scientists to apply their capabilities and expertise to important industrial technology challenges. Our TIR enabled collaboration with Kyma has been quite synergistic, enabling us to better understand and help them overcome their challenges in novel materials and devices that have potential to positively impact the energy economy.”

About Kyma Technologies

Kyma’s mission is to provide advanced materials solutions that promote energy efficiency. Kyma’s products include a diverse portfolio of advanced crystalline materials (including GaN, AlN, AlGaN, and Ga₂O₃), crystal growth tools for fabricating such materials, and GaN-based photoconductive semiconductor switch (PCSS) devices. Kyma's growing service offering includes specialty parts manufacturing, device processing, materials characterization, wafer fabrication, and federal contract consulting services. For more information about Kyma, visit www.kymatech.com.

About Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more information about Argonne National Laboratory visit https://www.anl.gov/.

About DOE’s Technologist in Residence (TIR) Program

The vision of the TIR program is to catalyze strong national laboratory-industry relationships that result in significant growth in high-impact collaborative research and development. The goals of the TIR program are to:

  • Increase collaborative research and development between national laboratories and private sector companies.

  • Develop a streamlined method for companies to establish long-term relationships with national laboratories that result in collaborative research and development.

For more information about the TIR Program visit https://energy.gov/eere/amo/technologist-residence-program.