【World Express】ARL will collaborate with Luxium Solutions to advance domestic supply of gallium oxide ultrawide bandgap semiconductor wafers

      UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – The Penn State Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) was recently awarded $4.4 million from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop a domestic supply of gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) semiconductor wafers.

      Gallium oxide is a groundbreaking material because it is an ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor that can be efficiently manufactured. Unlike silicon, which has a bandgap of 1.12 eV, gallium oxide has a bandgap exceeding 4.8 eV, resulting in a theoretical critical electric field that is significantly higher and in a notably lower on-resistance. Additionally, gallium oxide is unique as it can be produced at a larger scale and substantially lower cost than alternative materials.

      “There is a growing move to Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductors and this award builds on five years of previous funding at ARL from AFRL to develop and scale up gallium oxide,” said principal investigator David Snyder, Ph.D., a research faculty member in ARL’s Electronic Materials and Devices Department (EMDD). “We are excited to work on the development of these wafers with the Air Force and develop both a low cost and domestic supply of four inch wafers with these unique ultrawide bandgap properties.”

      ARL has partnered with Luxium Solutions, a global leader and supplier of specialized high-performance crystals utilized in photonics and radiation detection applications. Together, they will further advance Luxium Solutions’ edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) method, already employed in the production of gallium oxide crystals. ARL will be exploring Vertical Bridgman (VB) as an alternative growth technique.

      “Being able to work on the development of gallium oxide semiconductors is an exciting opportunity” said Katie Burzynski, Ph.D., Air Force Program Manager for this effort.  “This initiative underscores our commitment to advancing technology for critical DoD applications, and we look forward to the progress and impact this collaboration will bring.

      “We are honored to collaborate with ARL on this technically demanding project,” said John Frank, director of R&D and engineering, Luxium. “The contract to develop β-phase gallium oxide substrates using cost effective crystal growth methods aligns perfectly with our advanced capabilities in material science and crystal growth techniques. This work is pivotal for the next generation of high-power electronic devices, enabling superior thermal and electrical performance.”

      The program is led by principal investigator David Snyder, Ph.D. and co-principal investigators Robert Lavelle and Daniel Erdely. The Luxium Solutions team, based in Hiram, OH, and Milford, NH, will be led by Drew Haven, Ph.D., for this project, alongside subject matter experts in crystal growth and materials science: David Joyce, Paul Guggenheim, and Kale Geddis.

2” gallium oxide ultrawide bandgap wafer manufactured by Luxium Solutions, LLC