I-Corps: Novel Engineered Substrate Technology for Low-Defect, High-Yield Visible/UV LEDS and Power Electronics

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Mankind's energy usage is a staggering 15,000,000,000,000 watts, 80% of which is from fossil fuels that produce about 9,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide believed to be a major contributor to global climate concerns. The goal of displacing this fossil fuel based energy production is a daunting problem requiring the equivalent of 10,000 nuclear, solar, wind or hydroelectric carbon-free power plants. To put this in perspective, currently worldwide, there are only 441 nuclear power plants and far fewer renewable energy sources. For this reason, most of the effort in stemming the growth of energy demand is focused not on production, but on efficient energy consumption. To that end, this team proposes to commercialize "engineered semiconductor building blocks" (engineered substrates) that will enable customers to create major advances in energy efficient electronic power and lighting devices enabling massive energy savings through improved power efficiency. The initial focus of the team's efforts will be to demonstrate engineered substrates using a recently patented technology useful for emerging markets in power electronics and UV and green light emitters (known as LEDS). These engineered substrates will allow (a) various semiconductor devices to be fabricated with higher quality/performance for devices currently being produced and (b) existing manufacturers to expand into new devices that have higher performance and are currently not achievable by any competing method. This I-Corps team will conduct a detailed market survey of existing nitride substrate template technologies, including their cost, material quality, production value, and time to delivery. The team will identify customers within the Nitride community with experience in device design and growth using traditional non-native substrates (e.g., Silicon, SiC) and native templates (AlN and GaN). This team will conduct detailed customer surveys to understand the desired material quality and doping levels. The insight provided by these customers through direct surveys of their experience will be invaluable to maturing the proposed technology into a production ready product offering. It is critical that the team members understand the existing device performance metrics from the perspective of the customer, so that they can identify the key issues and challenges for which the team can provide an immediate solution and generate direct marketable impact for the customer. This team will also survey customers on pricing structure, and identify what they would be willing to pay for engineered substrates customized to their specifications.