【World Express】South Korea's ETRI, successfully developed 3kV class Gallium Oxide material and component technology "Next-Generation Power Semiconductor Core"

South Korean researchers have developed the core material and component process technology for the next-generation power semiconductor Gallium Oxide (Ga₂O₃).

      The research team led by Dr. Moon Jae-Kyung at the Korea Electronic Technology Research Institute (ETRI), in collaboration with Dr. Chung Doo-won at the Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET), announced on January 1, For the first time in Korea, the 3kV class Gallium Oxide power semiconductor metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) device technology was successfully developed.

      The Korean government has designated power semiconductor components as one of the 12 major national strategic technologies related to materials, components and devices. The technology is used as a core component of national industries such as mobile and quantum communications, electric vehicles, solar and wind power generation, power transmission, defense, aerospace, and quantum computers, but it currently relies on foreign imports for more than 95 percent of its electricity.

      ETRI stressed that localization of the technology is of great significance to achieve autonomy of the country's strategic technology.

Power semiconductor MOSFET components - Data provided by ETRI.

      It is reported that the research team successfully developed Gallium Oxide epitaxial material technology is a process for growing multi-layer high-quality conductive films on a single crystal substrate.

      The research team has successfully developed a high quality β Gallium Oxide epitaxial material growth technology using the widely anticipated metal-organic chemical gas growth method (MOCVD). The technology is able to freely adjust the thickness of the epitaxial material, from nanometer size (nm) to micron size (μm), and can widely adjust the electron concentration.

      The ETRI explained that this will help in the development of power semiconductor devices with voltage and current properties of different sizes, and bring the technology closer to mass production.

      The research team proposes that some success has been achieved with the Gallium Oxide device process technology, which is a wafer-level integrated process technology that fabricates power semiconductor devices through micro-patternization, low-damage etching, deposition, and heat treatment processes on an epitaxial material substrate.

      The team said that the successful development of Gallium Oxide epitaxial materials and power semiconductor MOSFET device technology can reduce manufacturing costs to one-third to one-fifth of the level of existing power semiconductors, enabling South Korea to achieve a leading position in the high value-added industry of next-generation power semiconductors.

      In the future, if this technology is applied to power transmission networks, high-speed railways, data centers, quantum computers, electric vehicles and other industries with large power consumption, it is expected to achieve good energy-saving effects.

      Dr Moon Jae-Kyung said: "I think Gallium Oxide power semiconductors can be used in other systems much earlier." "We are planning to commercialize the first multi-kilovolt Gallium Oxide power semiconductor MOSFET devices," he said.