EUROPEAN SPACE GAN

European Space GaN (ESGAN) aims to develop a 200V Enhancement mode GaN transistor (normally off) for use in power management circuits for space applications.

The advantages obtained from Gallium Nitride (GaN) such as reduced mass, increased efficiency and the potential of radiation hardness are well known and the project will aim to exploit these in the development of the technology.

Devices will be designed, produced, tested for radiation effects, thermal effects, structural effects and reliability performance and will be demonstrated in an application to verify the desired performance.

The end goal will be to proceed with a space evaluation leading to a space qualification of the produced devices.Another of the principal objectives is to establish and exercise a fully capable, committed European Supply Chain to remove dependency from other countries and geographical regions.

To achieve the goals of the project a strong consortium has been established in which the members cover each of the stages of the supply chain. The consortium is composed of the following companies.

AIXTRON, a company dedicated to the design and manufacture of equipment to grow advanced substrates for GaN transistors. SEMI ZABALA, a company dedicated to the design, test and packaging of GaN transistors and integrated circuits. X-FAB, a semiconductor foundry company that has developed and offers processing services for GaN transistors.

AIRBUS DEFENCE & SPACE, are one of Europe´s leading companies dedicated to the design and manufacture of satellite equipment and systems.

The consortium covers an end to end supply chain from materials, design, processing packaging and test through to end users.