China prepares to lead the manufacture of chips for advanced weapons

China monopolizes gallium production. In fact, Up to 2022 monopolized 98% of the world gross Gallic, and this figure presumably has barely varied since then. For the country led by Xi Jinping This metal has a strategic value comparable to the one for the US due to its potential in military applications. And, in addition, Gallium export control allows China to respond to the sanctions to which the US and their allies are subjecting this Asian country in the scope of the semiconductor industry.

Gallium is a very special metal. Its physicochemical properties make it suitable to be combined with other metals with the purpose of manufacturing a special type of integrated circuits called broadband semiconductors. These chips have three properties that make them very valuable to intervene in the manufacture of Advanced military teams: They support voltages, temperatures and frequencies higher than integrated conventional silicon circuits.

During the 70s the US Advanced Defense Research Projects (Darpa) He dedicated many resources to the development of semiconductors in which Gallium was involved due to the potential he had in military technology projects. He Gallium Arseniuro (GAAS) played a fundamental role in the development of the global positioning system (GPS), and also in Radark tuning and precision weapons.

China has taken a very important step forward

Currently, Gallium Nitruro (GAN), which also has Darpa’s backing, is being used to make state -of -the -art radars that are capable of accurately identifying smaller, fast and numerous objects at more distance. Each of these radars incorporates several thousand chips in which the gallium intervenes. Everything we have just seen invites us to reach an obvious conclusion: Gallium is an essential metal for the US. But this country is not the only military superpower on the planet.

The Chinese army and research institutions have been working with Gaul for many years and developing technologies that allow you to use it Third generation advanced semiconductors. As we have seen, China has Gallium in abundance, but producing integrated circuits with this metal is not easy. Neither for the country led by Xi Jinping nor for which Donald Trump is currently governing.

To manufacture gallium nitruro, silicon and sapphire substrates are often used, but the effectiveness of the processes used so far was moderate because the hexagonal atomic structure of the GAN causes the appearance of a defect known as climbing. In broad strokes this curious phenomenon triggers the displacement of groups of atoms in a certain region of the crystal, which affects its structure and reduces its properties. In fact, GAN manufacturing defects cause electric leaks, reduce their thermal stability and reduce the performance of semiconductors.

Until now the researchers who work with GAN had difficulty understanding why these defects appear in the crystalline structure of this material. And also to deal with them. But the team of scientists led by Professor Huang Bing at the University of Beijing (China) has identified the cause which triggers the production of defects during the growth of the Gan Crystals. What these scientists have discovered is that modifying the energy levels of electrons it is possible to accurately control the climbing and reduce defects.

“Traditional strategies to avoid defects include the use of different substrates and the adjustment of crystallization temperatures, but these approaches only address symptoms, not the cause,” Professor Huang Bing explained. If China manages to get this research from the laboratory and bring to production chains this technology will have the ability to manufacture cheapest GAN -GAN semiconductors, of more quality and a much larger scale. And at this juncture it will not be unreasonable to anticipate that it will be done with the leadership of the application of 3rd generation semiconductors in the military field and 5G technologies.

Image | TSMC

More information | SCMP

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