Highly durable crucible materials to support large AlN crystal growth

The company has developed and patented a proprietary crucible technology that is impervious to aluminum and nitrogen and can be used at high temperature for rapid growth of large AlN crystals. KSU will study the durability of the crucible material as afunction of temperature and growth conditions and determine the best method for utilizing low-impurity, low-stress, self-nucleated crystals as seeds in crucibles or cones. TFGI will bootstrap small seeds to demonstrate the feasibility of growing AlNcrystals up to 5 cM (2") diameter in Phase II. Large AlN wafers will be suitable for high temperature integrated electronics for controlling a wide range of military and commercial system that require operating temperatures that cannot be achieved withexisting semiconductor materials.