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Project

ORGANIC: Opportunities for Research towards GAllium-Nitride Integrated Circuits

GaN is being considered as a promising technology in power switching and RF power applications. GaN devices can operate at higher temperatures, higher power densities, higher voltages and higher frequencies than their silicon based couterparts. Already today some products based on GaN devices are on the market. There remains however a tremendous opportunity in this field, namely a higher degree of monolithic integration. Current GaN devices are mostly single components or MMIC's with very limited complexity. These components have to be combined with driver and control circuitry fabricated in another technology. This leads to a significant loss in performance (especially speed and efficiency) and to an increase in complexity and cost. As the evolution of silicon technologies has shown, a high degree of integration results in lower cost, higher speed and lower power electronic systems. In this field, MICAS can build upon a wealth of expertise in the design of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. In this C3 project, MICAS will leverage its design know-how to the GaN field, leading to a unique and crucial position in the GaN ecosystem. We will explore technology options, develop design concepts and architectures for large-scale high-complexity GaN integrated circuits, and validate the research through the design and realization of two integrated GaN-IC demonstrators. The valorization of the research results of ORGANIC will be mainly realized through bilateral industrial projects with companies that are active in the field of GaN components.
Date:1 Jan 2020 →  31 Dec 2022
Keywords:chip design, GaN technology, integration
Disciplines:Analogue, RF and mixed signal integrated circuits