Japanese team makes GaN-HEMT on 2-Inch diamond substrate

Sumitomo Electric and Osaka Metropolitan University have successfully fabricated a GaN-HEMT on a 2-inch polycrystalline diamond (PCD) substrate in a joint research project with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

They say that this technology is an important step toward achieving higher capacity and lower power consumption of core devices in mobile and satellite communications.

In recent years, as the volume of information in wireless communications has increased, there has been a demand for higher frequencies and higher output powers in devices such as GaN-HEMTs. However, the self-heating that occurs during operation limits the devices’ output power, resulting in signal transmission failures and other problems that reduce the performance and reliability of communications.