Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
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Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#2If you are interested, read up on SiC, Silicon Carbide. It is better then Gallium Nitride and Silicon for high voltage power small electronics because it has higher thermal conductivity. I randomly learned about it when I was fixing my cars breaks, apparently that is the material that is used :)
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#3All of three paragraphs long. Quotes a CEO talking his book.
If GaN were going to replace Si (it isn't), this isn't how you'd find out.
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#4If you are interested, read up on SiC, Silicon Carbide. It is better then Gallium Nitride and Silicon for high voltage power small electronics because it has higher thermal conductivity. I randomly learned about it when I was fixing my cars breaks, apparently that is the material that is used :)
It can also be quite pretty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#5maybe it will disrupt maybe it won't, but will it make the world a better place?
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#6With this article, you'd think they'd just discovered GaN.
It's been around for some time, about as long as there've been cheap blue and violet LED's and lasers (your Blu-ray player uses GaN).
Si may be an inferior semiconductor from certain performance perspectives, but it will just about always be cheaper.
Gallium is pretty rare as elements go, and many other industries (including solar) consume a fair amount of it. You'll run out before you get it past niche applications.
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#7With this article, you'd think they'd just discovered GaN. It's been around for some time, about as long as there've been cheap blue and violet LED's and lasers (your Blu-ray player uses GaN). Si may be an inferior semiconductor from certain performance perspectives, but it will just about always be cheaper. Gallium is pretty rare as elements go, and many other industries (including solar) consume a fair amount of it…
GaN has even existed in IC form for quite awhile now. Its pretty much limited to high end radio/sat parts though due to its cost.
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#8The list of application domains looks like a laundry list from an elevator pitch.
I'd be more interested in having an introduction of how it is used today, measurable aspects of how it compares to Silicon in application and manufacturing.
Before identifying futuristic technology, identify the pain points shared by aspects of futuristic technology then show how GaN can solve that. Provide a directed plan, not a dream.
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#9If you are interested, read up on SiC, Silicon Carbide. It is better then Gallium Nitride and Silicon for high voltage power small electronics because it has higher thermal conductivity. I randomly learned about it when I was fixing my cars breaks, apparently that is the material that is used :)
It can also be quite pretty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite
Difficult to machine, though, I'd expect, being among the hardest of all known substances (the moissanite polymorph being just a bit softer than diamond, at a Mohs scale hardness of 9.5.)
Re: Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon?
#10If you are interested, read up on SiC, Silicon Carbide. It is better then Gallium Nitride and Silicon for high voltage power small electronics because it has higher thermal conductivity. I randomly learned about it when I was fixing my cars breaks, apparently that is the material that is used :)
> I randomly learned about it when I was fixing my cars breaks, apparently that is the material that is used :)
What is it used for?
I'm familiar with SiC in the form of grit (grinding agent, looks like fine-grained sand) when I'm making telescope optics. It's extremely hard, and it grinds glass better than anything except diamond.