
Gallium nitride is about to disrupt silicon? - Jerry2
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2016/04/rd/gallium-nitride-disrupt-silicon-semiconductors
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mnemonicsloth
All 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.

~~~
ChuckMcM

       > If GaN were going to replace Si (it isn't), this 
       > isn't how you'd find out.
    

I think the generalized form of this statement is under appreciated. In my
experience it is common for company leaders to always position their company's
products as the "next big thing" and it is never this sort of announcement
that makes it the "next big thing" or even foretells the next big thing. So
often the actual next big thing sort of "explodes" into your consciousness as
"everything" is using/employing/copying it. And following back the bread
crumbs to the first mentions, rarely include a lot of pre-press on how good
its going to be.

That said, GaN power transistors are a thing. They were used in the winning
inverter contest Google ran[1], I've played with some samples from Mouser [2]
and they really are amazing. I thought IGBT transistors would replace power
MOSFETs but now I'm pretty sure it will be these bad boys.

[1] [http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/02/and-winner-
of-1-m...](http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/02/and-winner-of-1-million-
little-box.html)

[2]
[http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/FlyerSMDChopperBoardPGA26E19BA...](http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/FlyerSMDChopperBoardPGA26E19BASWEVB006.pdf)

~~~
deciplex
> _And following back the bread crumbs to the first mentions, rarely include a
> lot of pre-press on how good its going to be._

You'd find it of course, but you'll also find it for everything else that
failed. Its predictive power is near to zero.

Also, Betteridge's Law applies here, as always.

------
mchannon
With 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.

~~~
extrapickles
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.

------
arijon
If 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 :)

~~~
blacksmith_tb
It can also be quite pretty:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moissanite)

~~~
ribs
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.)

------
cordite
The 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.

~~~
zevets
Military radars and other high power electronics

------
wolfgke
If Gallium nitride would really replace silicon for computer chips and the
chips are really better, this would be an _evolutionary step_ in the chip
production, but not a disruption. A disruptive innovation (cf.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Disruptive_innova...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Disruptive_innovation&oldid=713356589))
is characterized to create "a new market and value network and eventually
disrupts an existing market and value network, displacing established market
leaders and alliances.". This clearly isn't the case here.

TLDR: Dear tech journalists, stop putting bullshit words into headlines and
articles if you don't know their meanings.

~~~
marshray
I think if you consider the many tens or even hundreds of $B currently
invested in Si foundry tooling which could be obsoleted by this transition the
word 'disruptive' is appropriate.

However, the semiconductor industry seems uniquely well suited to handle this
as they seem to coordinate their already highly disruptive process steps
across much of the industry. E.g.
[https://www.bing.com/search?q=Intel%20Samsung%20TSMC%20reach...](https://www.bing.com/search?q=Intel%20Samsung%20TSMC%20reach%20agreement%20about%20450mm%20tech&qs=n&form=QBRE&pq=intel%20samsung%20tsmc%20reach%20agreement%20about%20450mm%20tech)

------
bassman9000
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

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supergirl
maybe it will disrupt maybe it won't, but will it make the world a better
place?

