QROMIS, a Silicon Valley-based company, revolutionizes the semiconductor industry with its groundbreaking QROMIS Substrate Technology (QST®), addressing critical cost and reliability challenges for gallium nitride (GaN) devices.
SAN ANTONIO, July 9, 2024 -- Frost & Sullivan recently researched the GaN semiconductors industry and, based on its findings, recognizes QROMIS with the 2024 Global Enabling Technology Leadership Award. QROMIS is a world-class advanced semiconductor technologies provider that offers high performance materials solutions to help global businesses enhance their digital transformation, improve efficiency, and boost productivity in multiple markets, including power and radio frequency (RF) electronics, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and advanced displays.
QROMIS leverages its disruptive and patented QST® substrate innovation (protected by ~300 worldwide patents) to develop GaN devices, which reduces costs and increases the reliability. CMOS fab-friendly and SEMI standard thickness QST® ensures compatibility with standard semiconductor manufacturing processes, promoting long-awaited scalability and sustainability, enabling superior thermal conductivity, and lowering energy consumption.
The groundbreaking QST® substrate technology has an embedded high thermal conductivity and high mechanical strength core material which has a very closely matched coefficient of thermal expansion to those of GaN/AlGaN epitaxial layers over a wide temperature range, enabling wafer breakage / stress-free, scalable, low cost and high performance GaN power device manufacturing on 200 mm and 300 mm mainstream CMOS production platforms. These unique features enable not only the mainstream lateral GaN power devices but also the long awaited commercial vertical GaN power switches and rectifiers suitable for high voltage and high current applications presently dominated by Si IGBTs and SiC power FETs and diodes.
QST®, which is assembled and manufactured in traditional CMOS fabs, is very similar to mainstream Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) substrates with respect to manufacturing processing and cost, and utilizes energy efficient state-of-the-art semiconductor process tools with an over 98% yield and a process cycle time of less than 7 days. This is a critical component of the QST® innovation which was carefully designed per the projected cost and sustainability / net zero requirements in the industry, and very different than manufacturing of native GaN substrates or non-native silicon carbide (SiC) and sapphire substrates.
One of the critical features of QST® technology is the enablement of high yielding and low cost GaN epitaxy growth process via robust wafer shape control, epitaxy uniformity and elimination of costly and complex strain management layers which result in reduction of epitaxy growth time by 50%. This is an extremely important and leap-forward achievement for overall cost reduction of GaN devices.
One of the critical factors behind QROMIS' success is its commitment to driving GaN technology adoption across multiple market segments. The company collaborates with global industrial partners to leverage their manufacturing platforms, securing the scalability and widespread adoption of QST® platform which has proven to be a game-changer in the industry, allowing GaN power devices to exceed the 650 V threshold to 2000 V and beyond on 200 mm and 300 mm diameters while maintaining high performance and reliability. In addition to GaN power electronics, this groundbreaking and disruptive technology is also well positioned to enable significant advancements in GaN RF and microLED applications, and all applications can be manufactured in the same platform for business expansion, economies of scale and sustainability.
"Frost & Sullivan commends QROMIS for its innovative QST®, which effectively addresses scalability, cost and reliability challenges in the GaN semiconductors market. QST® will play a crucial role in expediting the commercialization of highly reliable GaN devices while showcasing versatility in applications and demonstrating scalability for future advancements," said Prabhu Karunakaran, industry principal for the semiconductors program at Frost & Sullivan.
The company has positioned itself as an innovation leader in the substrate market and enables the development of high-quality GaN power electronics in variety of device architectures on 200 mm diameter platform (lateral and vertical power switches extending from 100 to 2000 V and beyond, wafer-level monolithic ICs and rectifiers) that meet the stringent requirements of modern applications and the ever-evolving market needs. Additionally, QROMIS continues to expand its technology roadmap with transition its process technology platform to 300 mm QST® wafers (sampling starting in second half of 2024). This strategic move will further enhance cost reduction and address challenges of accessing to the most advanced 300 mm device manufacturing processes and tools (such as high-resolution lithography) which is critical for next-generation GaN power, RF and microLED applications.
By advancing its technology to support larger wafer sizes, QROMIS is poised to disrupt the GaN market and drive accelerated growth. This is well ahead of some of the competing technologies, which are not expected to launch 300 mm wafer-based GaN in the short-term. The company's forward-thinking approach gives it a critical competitive advantage that its competitors are unlikely to replicate, ensuring that its technology will remain at the forefront of innovation in the long term.
"QROMIS is building on its early commercialization success by consistently demonstrating efforts to innovate, create, and focus on diverse applications, accelerating GaN penetration in the power, RF, and microLED markets. Consequently, the company is well-positioned to experience continued growth above that of the GaN devices market," noted Karunakaran.
Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that develops a pioneering technology that enhances current products and enables new product and application development. The award recognizes the high market acceptance potential of the recipient's technology.
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in various regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.
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