IN Brief:
- Atomera is applying Mears Silicon Technology to GaN-on-silicon RF device structures.
- The process uses a thin oxygen-modified layer near the silicon surface to reduce parasitic channel charge.
- Lower-loss GaN-on-silicon could support more scalable RF components for 5G, 6G, and wireless infrastructure.
Atomera is applying its Mears Silicon Technology to gallium nitride grown on silicon, targeting lower parasitic losses in RF devices for wireless infrastructure and high-frequency communications systems.
The process introduces a thin oxygen-modified layer near the silicon surface, altering the lattice structure and helping to block dopant diffusion. By improving the interface where GaN is grown, the approach reduces parasitic channel charge, one of the factors that has limited GaN-on-silicon performance in RF power devices.
High-performance RF GaN devices are commonly built on silicon carbide substrates, which offer strong electrical performance but carry higher costs and scaling constraints. Silicon substrates are cheaper, available in larger wafer sizes, and more compatible with established semiconductor manufacturing flows. The trade-off has been RF performance, especially where parasitic losses reduce efficiency and linearity at higher frequencies.
Atomera’s testing showed more than a tenfold reduction in parasitic channel charge. Independent RF characterisation by Incize reported improvements in small-signal and large-signal behaviour, including stronger linearity and power handling. Atomera has also reported linearity improvements at 30mW input power that were 1,000 times better than a conventional GaN-on-silicon reference wafer, with benefits extending up to 10W input power.
The aim is to make silicon a more practical platform for RF GaN devices without giving away too much of the performance associated with GaN-on-SiC. That would broaden the commercial scope for RF power components in wireless infrastructure, satellite communications, defence electronics, and future 6G systems, where efficiency, linearity, cost, and manufacturability all shape adoption.
GaN is already spreading through power conversion and motor-control applications, with QPT opening demonstrations for a 1MHz GaN drive as one example of the material moving into faster switching industrial systems. Atomera’s work sits on the RF side of the same materials shift, where substrate and interface behaviour have a direct effect on signal quality and amplifier performance.
The RF design challenge differs sharply from power switching. In RF front ends, losses and non-linearity can degrade signal quality, reduce efficiency, increase heat, and complicate system-level design. Linearity is particularly demanding in modern communications networks, where complex modulation schemes and crowded spectrum environments leave less tolerance for distortion.
If GaN-on-silicon can narrow the performance gap with GaN-on-SiC, designers could gain access to more cost-effective RF devices with stronger manufacturing scalability. SiC would remain central to many high-performance RF applications, but silicon could support a wider range of equipment where cost, wafer availability, and production scale are decisive.
Network densification, private industrial wireless systems, satellite terminals, and defence communications are all increasing demand for capable RF power devices that can be manufactured in volume. Atomera’s work reflects a wider semiconductor trend in which performance gains come from interfaces, substrates, packaging, and process modifications as much as from transistor scaling.
