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ABB's problems with its SiC project opens for research into GaN, another wide bandgap semiconductor. Internationally, GaN has attracted a lot of interest as a material for future high-speed electronics. In Sweden however, GaN research has so far struggled in the shadow of SiC.
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) aims to set up a research centre to co-ordinate research into high-power applications for materials with a wide bandgap like gallium nitride, GaN, and silicon carbide, SiC. This is all supposed to be done in close collaboration with industry. The company which would gain most from such collaboration is ABB. However, ABB has recently abandoned its SiC research project and the company has declined to comment on potential involvement in future GaN research.
"If industry has lost its interest in SiC there is no incentive for the SSF to invest in the material. This is not exactly a disadvantage for GaN, but we are awaiting ABB's next step," says Anders Sjölund at SSF.
Given that the planned centre gets the go-ahead, it is likely that it will be shared between Linköping University, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Researchers at these three sites have already nurtured plans for a joint national programme for GaN research.
"We would be very happy if a decision was made to invest in GaN research. This is what we have worked for, for several years," says Professor Bo Monemar at Linköping University.
"If industry has lost its interest in SiC there is no incentive for the SSF to invest in the material. This is not exactly a disadvantage for GaN, but we are awaiting ABB's next step," says Anders Sjölund at SSF.
Given that the planned centre gets the go-ahead, it is likely that it will be shared between Linköping University, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. Researchers at these three sites have already nurtured plans for a joint national programme for GaN research.
"We would be very happy if a decision was made to invest in GaN research. This is what we have worked for, for several years," says Professor Bo Monemar at Linköping University.
Gittan Cedervall
