Inlustra Technologies, a US-based startup spun out from the world-renowned gallium nitride research laboratories at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has now developed a scalable production process for nonpolar and semipolar GaN substrates. The company is expanding its production facilities and has recently started to fill orders from customers. 

Gallium nitride (GaN) is critical semi-conductive material for the production of compact and highly efficient green, blue, violet, and ultraviolet light sources. They form the basis for green and white LEDs as well as blue laser diodes. More importantly, GaN-based white LEDs used for general lighting will become a highly efficient, non-toxic replacement for fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, yielding energy savings equivalent to over 5 billion barrels of oil over the next 20 years, according to the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE).

“Our proprietary crystal growth techniques significantly reduce the number of microscopic defects in the substrates, which will enable our customers to realize improved yields in their device production processes”, says Paul Fini, Chief Technology Officer at Inlustra. The company is currently offering non-polar GaN substrate sizes between 5x10mm and 10x20mm but will scale up its process to 2” over the next 9 - 12 months.

About Inlustra Technologies
Founded in 2005 out of the world-renowned Gallium Nitride effort under Professors Shuji Nakamura, Jim Speck, and Steve DenBaars at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Inlustra is focusing on the production of next-generation nonpolar Gallium Nitride substrates for a broad range of laser and LED applications. Inlustra's founders have pioneered nonpolar Gallium Nitride research and have successfully ported the fundamental technology to the current production environment.