The University of Cambridge start-up Porotech is set to commercialise porous Gallim Nitride (GaN), which opens the door to high performance optoelectronic devices with unexpected properties.
While silicon has been at heart of computer chips and microelectronics for decades, they are reaching the limit of performance, and thus an alternative like GaN is highly attractive, which sustains higher voltages and has improved efficiency. The Porotech team create the nanoscale porosity in GaN wafers using electrochemical etching. The etch is conductivity selective and responds differently to the material depending on its doping density. Porosity is created in doped layers while undoped layers are left undamaged, allowing complex 3D nanostructures to be created. Porotech is headed by the University of Cambridge’s researchers: Prof Rachel Oliver, Dr Tongtong Zhu and Dr Yingjun Liu.