Aim 3—Transformative Manufacturing

APEX is pursuing transformative manufacturing via hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE), including studying AlGaN growth kinetics on novel substrates, and incorporating in situ diagnostics.

Chart showing the growth rate of diffusion length by temperature

Goals and Potential Impact

In Aim 3, APEX performs foundational science to enable future scalable, cost-effective integration into power electronics manufacturing using HVPE. HVPE is a commercially proven epitaxial growth option with demonstrated high-throughput deposition of III-V nitrides and Ga2O3, with the potential to deposit a wider range of materials in the future. HVPE's unmatched growth rates and high material quality make it the ideal growth technique to deposit thick, low-doped drift layers. However, heterointerface initiation for III-N materials in HVPE is not well understood. Research on the growth fundamentals (kinetics, defect studies) is necessary to develop synthesis control and material quality of AlGaN to be used in next-generation power electronic devices. We use this information, along with data from growth studies, to build kinetic models of the various processes that control growth. This allows us to manipulate the growth kinetics to overcome anticipated limitations of growing relevant materials on new templates—for example, growing on less traditional substrates. Kyma's demonstrated growth technique to reduce Si and other background impurities should result in UWBG semiconductor films with enhanced mobility and breakdown fields, building upon the advantage of the APEX-enabled lattice-matched substrate.

Science Questions

Aim 3 addresses these science questions:

  • What are the relevant species in the AlGaN HVPE growth environment, and how can their kinetics be manipulated to increase growth rate?

  • How can we use growth rate to control and prevent phase separation in metastable alloys?

  • Can nitride growth by HVPE on novel lattice-matched substrates lead to improved UWBG semiconductor electrical and thermal properties?

The results from Aim 3 ensure that the knowledge developed in APEX has a pathway via a proven and potentially transformative manufacturing environment for power electronics in the future.

Contact

For more information about the research in Aim 3 or to discuss potential collaboration, contact John Simon at NLR.

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Last Updated Oct. 13, 2026