LG Innotek chooses Linkoping University for silicon carbide project

Seoul, South Korea--LG Innotek, a company within LG, the giant South Korean group of companies, is initiating collaboration with materials researchers at Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden. The goal of this nine-year project is to develop the manufacture of the semiconductor silicon carbide (SiC) for optoelectronic components.

"he researchers at Linköping are world class, so it was natural to choose them as a partner. We are very enthusiastic about working with them,"said Joo-Won Lee, technical director of LG Innotek, at the project’s kick-off meeting in Linköping on November 12 2010.

Investments in the high-performance electronics material silicon carbide is a part of the company’s newly-determined future strategy. It can be used for things like the undercoating in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which then give off a much stronger light. LED-based displays and illumination are a priority area, in which the parent company LG is the second biggest in the world. Silicon carbide is also of great interest in the development of components for electric vehicles and the streamlining of green energy production.

The project is financed in part by the Republic of Korea. As far as the LiU researchers are concerned, it involves $2.9 million dollars, and their role is to develop their method of growing high-quality silicon carbide through a process known as epitaxy. LG will also fund a new, state of the art reactor for the purpose.

Erik Janzén and his co-workers in the field of semiconductors at the Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology have been working for years with silicon carbide, which tolerates very high voltages, extreme temperatures, and has good thermal conductivity. These are properties that offer greater advantages in comparison with silicon where energy conservation and component size are concerned.

SOURCE: AlphaGalileo; www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=89864&CultureCode=en

Posted by:Gail Overton

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