Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Pressure Physics now Ammono leaseholder

The Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Pressure Physics (IHPP PAS) says that, in the best interest of nitride semiconductor science and technology, it has become the leaseholder of Warsaw-based Ammono Company which manufactures bulk gallium nitride (GaN) wafers using the ammonothermal method but which has been in receivership since 2015.

Established by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the tenancy is intended to enable close cooperation between the groups involved in ammonothermal and hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) crystallization of GaN. The latter is performed at IHPP PAS and, as a result of common projects, possible synergy between these two methods has been established. Ammono owns an ammonothermal GaN wafer pilot line, and IHPP PAS is building a pilot line for HVPE GaN substrates.

The lease and collaboration should lead to further development of both methods and, in the future, to merging of the two technologies and mass production of high-quality GaN wafers for GaN-based electronic and optoelectronic devices. The tenancy should also enable knowledge transfer between researchers who have been involved in GaN crystallization for over two decades.