AIXTRON joins major 300 mm GaN Power Electronic Program with its Hyperion 300 mm GaN tool

As one of the first partners, AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIXA) joins a 300 mm GaN Power Electronics Program with its Hyperion GaN MOCVD System. The Hyperion system will be used to supply 300 mm epitaxial wafers to the program and its partners for the development of low- and high-voltage power electronics applications, such as on-board chargers and DC/DC converters for EV applications, inverters for solar panels, and power distribution systems for AI data centers.

Imec, the renowned semiconductor research institute based in Leuven, Belgium, has expanded its GaN Power program running on 200 mm wafers with a new program for 300 mm to develop GaN epi growth and device process flows for low and high voltage GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). The use of 300 mm substrates will not only reduce GaN device manufacturing costs, but it will also allow the development of more advanced power electronics devices, such as efficient low-voltage point-of-load converters for CPUs and GPUs. AIXTRON is contributing to this new program with its Hyperion 300 mm GaN-MOCVD System in imec’s state-of-the-art cleanroom in Leuven, Belgium. This system will be used to supply epitaxial wafers to the program and its partners for the development of low- and high-voltage power electronics applications.

“We are very proud to team up once more with imec to advance GaN Power development. Thanks to its In-Situ Cleaning capabilities, our Hyperion GaN-MOCVD platform is the sole fully-automated 300 mm platform to date. It will allow our customers to seamlessly integrate 300 mm GaN epitaxy into their Silicon cleanrooms, “says Dr. Felix Grawert, CEO of AIXTRON SE, adding: “It was only natural for us to continue the partnership with imec on 300 mm GaN to further accelerate the adoption of Gallium Nitride technology into more and more applications relying on silicon today. The collaboration will ensure our customers benefit from all latest imec process advancements directly on their MOCVD systems.”

AIXTRON and imec are long-time partners for several programs, where imec uses both the AIXTRON G5+ C as well as the G10-GaN in its cleanroom, to advance GaN Power & RF devices development for all its affiliates. After working on 300 mm GaN Power since 2024 remotely, this new partnership brings a strong mutual benefit to imec and AIXTRON – accelerating the availability of pre-production epitaxial recipes and process flows that affiliates can directly use on their AIXTRON MOCVD systems to start their product development.