Posted on 09/14/2022 4:09:34 AM PDT by FarCenter
TOKYO – In the latest move against China, the US government has imposed export controls on a next-generation semiconductor material that was initially developed in Japan.
On August 12, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce – as part of a wholesale move toward additional tech sanctions – issued a ruling that identified gallium oxide semiconductor substrates as an “emerging and foundational” technology “essential to the national security of the United States.”
Gallium oxide is a promising material for the fabrication of more efficient power devices used in electric vehicles and other – including military – applications. Tellingly, one major investor in the leading US company in the field is the US Department of Defense.
As explained by Taiyo Nippon Sanso, a Japanese company participating in its commercialization, “Its theoretical performance as a power device is far higher than that of silicon, and also exceeds that of silicon carbide and gallium nitride, making this an excellent material.”
Power semiconductors supply and control electricity used to run motors and charge batteries by converting electric power from AC to DC and adjusting voltages to appropriate levels. Most of those in use today are made from silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride. Gallium oxide is only now moving from R&D to initial commercial application.
The development of gallium oxide wafers and devices is underway in the US, Japan, Europe, South Korea, Taiwan and China. While the US government is ringing alarms about gallium oxide’s national security implications, the Japanese are leading way to its commercialization.
Three companies stand out as developers and manufacturers of gallium oxide substrates, wafers and devices, namely Kyma Technologies of the US and FLOSFIA and Novel Crystal Technology of Japan. Let’s examine each of these early leaders in the material.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
Regards,
Gallium oxide, I believe, is an older substrate that I seem to recall helps high speed, high heat computing and is resistant to EMF.
But that’s reaching back to old days in my memory.
Good to know. Thanks.
Now, if it only was a key component of batteries.
Gallium arsenide is widely used as a microwave frequency semiconductor.
Gallium nitride is used for blue wavelength laser diodes and LEDs, e.g. in Blu-ray DVD drives.
Gallium oxide appears to be used as a substrate for gallium nitride, but not as the active semiconductor material.
Gallium arsenide is the form I was thinking about.
Thank you for that! My memory was from reading computer magazines, long ago.
Gallium was the Metal found stored in the “Aztec” rock pile in the flooded cavern on Blind Frog Ranch.
In an “unnatural” state of refinement as I recall. Very odd.
There was an article yesterday, about the White House easing tech restrictions on China, only 2 days after hiring new staffers from Huawei...
Yes, very advanced refinement and unheard of for the time it was supposedly secreted within artificial cavities drilled into the stone. If the circumstances of it’s deposit are accurate, it begs the question as to whom and why Gallium was considered so valuable 400 years ago. We do not have any idea of how it would have been used in a relatively primitive society but obviously they did had some important reason for refining it and going through all the trouble of hiding it so thoroughly.
Mining for Gallium oxide will be banned here in the USA due to endangering some lizard or insect.
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