AlixLabs AB, a Swedish semiconductor startup specializing in Atomic Layer Etching (ALE), announces that it has entered a research collaboration with Linköping University. The company and the university will join forces in furthering Swedish research into gallium nitride (GaN) and indium nitride (InN) deposition and etch, strengthening not only their own respective expertise in RF and power electronics but also aligning with the Swedish semiconductor sector.
“Our goal is to widen our research portfolio beyond deposition to etching, which is AlixLabs’ specialty,” says Henrik Pedersen, professor in inorganic chemistry at Linköping University. “During our initial research phase, we found that we have the same plasma etch equipment in our university labs as AlixLabs has at its home base in Lund, meaning we can run research in parallel. We look forward to exchanging information and know-how, especially in an all-Swedish collaboration.”
The resulting research will help strengthen AlixLabs’ offering within RF and power semiconductors, a field the EU has labeled as critical for its climate goals. It is a participant in the GaN-centered, Infineon-led, All2GaN project which underpins the union’s ambitions to achieve climate neutrality by the year 2050.
“We are excited about partnering up with the team at Linköping University and Professor Pedersen, a renowned researcher in the atomic layer deposition (ALD) and semiconductor chemistry space. Our goal is to find ways to qualify our processes for use in materials beyond silicon and we found significant synergies between our labs with regards to GaN and InN,” says Jonas Sundqvist, CEO and co-founder of AlixLabs.
Beyond leading-edge semiconductors, for which AlixLabs’ flagship APS™ process caters, the power electronics market is expected to grow significantly until the end of the decade, with Yolé Developpement forecasting an annual growth of revenue from power GaN devices of over 40 percent through 2029.
“Our etching processes have found a lot of interest among clients in the power electronics field. Ideally, our processes will have something to offer all players, no matter which semiconductor material they wish to process,” concludes Sundqvist.