Will gallium nitride electronics change the world? | Upscaled

[@ngneer999]

As a person who has made bare semiconductor wafers since the 1970's I can say there are just too many advantages to silicon. In the 1980's I was told that in 5 years silicon would be dead and GaAs would be everywhere. SiC was the same way in the 2000's. Silicon keeps winning because it's cheap, easy to make oxides, easy to machine (slice and polish), and can be grown into crystals too heavy for me to lift without help. I've worked with Ge, Si, GaP, GaAs, InP, InAs, InSb, SiC and GaN.

[@StrangerThenRedz]

Silicon will likely always win as Gallium is not an abundant element and will likely hit the same stumbling block as cobalt is doing for lithium-ion batteries

[@MsJeffreyF]

Do you think a massive project like NASA pushing GaN on Venus could lead to a push to overcome a lot of the current disadvantages?

[@coffeewind4409]

@@StrangerThenRedz Until we start mining asteroids

[@c31979839]

@@coffeewind4409 give me an example of an asteroid that has GaN on it.

[@hurtstopee1895]

@@StrangerThenRedz i understand that wars are being instigated just to secure lands that have this various stuff- with all the tech that derived thus far i'm still happy with my 10yr old pc. s

[@vxvxcvxcvcvxc]

The biggest issue with Gallium Nitride is its low hole-mobility. The huge difference in electron and hole mobilities makes complementary MOS (CMOS) circuits difficult. CMOS is the fundamental building block of all modern digital integrated circuits. Once we solve these issues, GaN could make Dennard scaling(which hit a wall for Silicon devices around 2006) possible again. When it comes to density scaling, Silicon still has some life left thanks to future improvements such as gate all around / nano-wire transistors. We should be able to reach 600-700 million transistors / mm^2 with silicon. During the silicon to alternate material transition era, new computing architectures may be developed to make more efficient use of existing transistor densities. Dataflow CPU architectures may yield further performance improvements by tapping into the instruction-level parallelism potential much more efficiently than current von Neumann architectures.

[@TheChameleon2008]

"Once we solve these issues" So you working on a solution? Or do you mean "they"

[@roebbiej]

@@TheChameleon2008 we as mankind. Come on dude, are you trolling or actually Interested if he's working on gallium nitride development.

[@kevinravido77]

What a reply. Awesome info!

[@TheChameleon2008]

@@roebbiej I think people use the term we only when it suits them so i hate it when its being used. We as in mankind lol We all know in the end its only a few who will solve the problem.

[@roebbiej]

@@TheChameleon2008 bruh, semantics. I can appreciate someone being very punctual but this takes the cake.

[@KokKeeYap]

I'm a nanoelectronics engineer and this is a very well-researched video. Very well-presented too. Thanks!

[@goodkarma7490]

Sounds like you work in an incredibly interesting field. Where are we seeing nanoelctronics filter into commercial products?

[@KokKeeYap]

@@goodkarma7490 not so soon, at least. Mostly is still in R&D phase or application in a very small scale

[@abdullahe3674]

@@KokKeeYap hey there sir thats r cool give me some advise, eng student im keen in going into that field kind rigards SIr:)

[@LegendBegins]

10:41 My boy NASA rocking the comic sans.

[@devrim-oguz]

😂

[@sadyokaiz2695]

This series needs way more attention.. the knowledge you gain after watching it is freakin insane ! keep the good work, really appreciate it

[@RogerBarraud]

@Thunder Life It's fine, it all leaked out again while you were writing that comment.

[@LNMBEATS]

only if you believe everything without actual confirmation i call it stupid

[@nsfeliz7825]

one page of a basic electronics books has a thousand times more real knwledge.hmmmp.

[@shize9ine]

These videos are the reason I subbed. Don’t know why Engadget has such range of quality aka their weird, poorly researched buzz feed style videos. Keep it up!

[@zodiacfml]

same but I unsubbed recently since they produce trashy videos except this series.

[@Lukehmcc]

This should be its own channel

[@llcn829]

It’s probably what drives traffic

[@Czeckie]

i would like to subscribe to this series alone, other stuff on this channel doesn't interest me at all

[@MechMykl]

Every time I thought to myself “I wonder if they could...” you went down the same path of inquiry. Favorite series on KZbin. Other explainer videos wish they could be this.

[@almostinfamous42]

Didn't expect an Engadget series to become one of my favourite yt shows in 2020. Thanks for the great work and hope to see more!

[@vascomatias1096]

Wow so cool. I did my PhD in GaN doping with Rare-Earth ions for photoluminescence between 2003-2007. It was indeed an issue to get high quality GaN. I was using ion implantation to dope GaN, which creates even more defects. To get rid of those defects you need to heat (anneal) the material to above decomposition temperature of GaN, which was a problem. My contribution was to slightly head up the material during implantation and avoid defects while they are being created. I miss those research days...

[@slash196]

This was tremendously informative, very detailed without being dry, engages with the academic work being done while staying interesting without annoying hype or overstatement. I've watched other "explainers" from other outlets like Seeker or Vox and they almost never tell me something I don't already know because they spend the whole time treating me like an idiot and never get around to the good stuff. This was brilliantly done, I'll definitely watch more videos on the channel in the future.

[@harishannamalai8669]

More than the tons of research, the logical organization and presentation was so coherent. Good Video!

[@TuFacez]

Upscaled is awesome, thanks to Chris!

[@TGMisKillingTheMiddleClass]

I love this series, no fluff just knowledge

[@adityay525125]

Just stuff**

[@eddyecho]

This is still fluff. The title and premise of the video is overly optimistic and misleading to anyone who doesn't have a basic background in microelectronics.

[@scottmcgahey6820]

Quite a few errors better hope thunderf00t doesn't see this

[@webforder4201]

Josh it’s supposed to be understood by everyone.

[@bruhdabones]

eddyecho yeah, fitting a laptop charger into that tiny wall plug is kinda out there. Lots of issues with that idea. And a computer running at 300 Celsius? Please. Any dust in the air would be incinerated! 150-200C would be more reasonable. Still, doesn’t hurt to hope. If it does 70% of this stuff, it would help a lot.

[@prashanthb6521]

This will be an awesome leap from old electronics. And thanks for the explanation of "band gap", "valence" etc.

[@Lukehmcc]

This series should be its own channel, it's one of my favorite things to watch, but Engadget spams my sub box with trashy news. So it's own channel would be awesome!

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

I didn't know this channel before. This video is in a whole different league than what I would expect from a product placement channel.

[@ikjadoon]

The quality of content here is fantastic. Excellent work. Please keep going with this series!

[@drkskwlkr]

If only more KZbin publishers put up such well made videos. I can't say I've learned anything I didn't already know but the topic was perfectly summarized. It was a real pleasure to watch.

[@lostalaska]

This is hands down one of the best explanations of GaN that I've seen yet. Great job in balancing the technical explanations while not utterly overwhelming the viewer. Thanks for such a fantastic resource.

[@gokouson180]

This is the best description of the workings of a transistor that I've seen on youtube. Well done.

[@SinanAkkoyun]

Wow, you really try to make these videos explain to the unstudied and still give fresh news to the studied, I love that!

[@AAKASHDHOLAKIAlambo]

Superb! Best explainer show on KZbin. The diagrams are incredibly helpful!!

[@Neojhun]

I feel this series is continued to be referenced years later. Please preserve on more platforms.

[@AdamPearce]

First time i've seen one of your videos. Informative. Interesting. In the best tradition of some of the Discovery Channel's best work from the late 1990s, early 2000s.

[@battousaihimura]

EV engineer here. SiC MOSFET is used for high power/high temperature (where higher thermal conductivity matters) application such as Traction motor inverter and GaN is/will be used for higher frequency (> 300 kHz) application like the Onboard Charger (the AC Level 2 charger at 3 to ~20 kW) and DC/DC converter. GaN is being explored for traction inverter use case but at the moment is limited to ~600V_dc application. GaN on SiC substrate would be even better but difficult yield and expensive to manufacture. Thanks for the video, very informative :)

[@n637]

I am doing my master thesis to build a power electronic circuit using Gallium Nitride. You pretty much covered everything that took me 2 months to gather from my research. Thums up :)

[@schoebelski6602]

suuuuper interesting, again. keep this stuff coming. many many thanks :o)

[@ian9945]

Impressed with how in depth and not watered down this video is.

[@claudiorassouli1240]

You rocked it! The way you explained how computing could improve with Gallium nitride made it very easy to understand. It showed that you researched, found the perfect graphics, layered explanations, and our visuals were very helpful. Keep it up!

[@simongregory3114]

I know this makes me a bad person, but my biggest takeaway from this video was that the NASA High Temperature GaN Microprocessor for Space Applications slide at 10:42 was set in Comic Sans.

[@napynap]

LOL

[@perforongo9078]

Lol, probably a lot of dyslexics at NASA.

[@Germanator94]

12:10 A little correction Because of the different crystall structure (cubic vs. hexagonal) you can not grow GaN on Si. You normally grow GaN on sapphire (Al2O3)

[@richardneumann3939]

Yes, you can. But it is way harder. (Not sure in what paper you will find it, but the panasonic GaN transistors are all done on silicon, their papers will probably cover it.) You need a lot of transition layers to get it working. For LED applications it is usually grown on sapphire. Doing it that way gives you fewer crystal defects. Cooling through sapphire gets a problem. Most vendors just remove it after the device is processed (Osram is shooting it with a laser, and can use the sapphire as a substrate again for the next batch…) For power applications Silicon is usually used. You need a conductive substrate to get the high switching frequency working. And it is cheaper in production. You could also grow it on Silicon carbide. But if you bought a SiC wafer for your production, you can also just use SiC as a transistor.

[@Germanator94]

@@richardneumann3939 Oh thank you so much, I did not know that. To be honest I just work with AlInGaN for LED production. So here the go-to substrate is Sapphire for now, even though affordable GaN substrates would be a huge leap forward. I just thought that the defect density would be way too high for using Si substrates. I mean you are literally forcing atom where they dont want to be.

[@RogerBarraud]

@@Germanator94 Look up "Strained Silicon" ... it's been a speed-enhancing thing for 10+ years.

[@1.618_Murphy]

He explains Chemistry better than my chemistry teacher from my college!!!

[@kimeli]

this is more physics than chemistry.

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

@@kimeli The physics is clear, it's an engineering problem.

[@1.618_Murphy]

@@kimeli Don't you know that chemistry is just another branch of physics?

[@333pc]

Refreshing to see a no BS content in a mainstream channel. Keep it up.

[@kiraphillips5713]

Very refreshing to have high quality technical content from the larger publications. Love this series!

[@daves1412]

Liked and subscribed on the basis of that. Well done. Very well done. So important to include the trade-offs and challenges into a rounded piece. You have also given me a crazy idea which has about 0.0001 percent chance of working; but I’ll explore the basics and then see where it takes me!

[@1337Superfly]

This is incredibly interesting Gallium Nitrade GAN Could really revolutionize chip industry along with the rest of the electronic circuitry industry. Fantastic video - really enjoy the learning potential packed in to this!

[@dobz]

Keep the nitty gritty details coming! I'm so grateful for this series, thank you!

[@PremixedSea20]

Really enjoy this series! Keep it up! (also thank-you for adding in the references as well, it's nice to read up on some of the stuff that caught my eye)

[@dreggory82]

You included the sources in the description! Subscribed! keep doing that!

[@keyvan2]

I have worked with GaN. So far I haven't seen compelling evidence anyone being able to make GaN wafers. Thin layers are grown on Siliocn or Sapphire wafers. The trick is to put a thin layer of GaN on a great heat conductor such as SiC or Diamond to be able to make efficient devices. The cost of such ciruits are far higher than silicon since the bonding of GaN to other heat conducting substrates is far higher than making devices on silicon. This is why GaN is normally used for high priced power electronics. GaN can actually replace radar tubes due to its high band gap and the weight of such tubes is more than a 100 times lower than conventional radar tubes but the cost is far higher.

[@rayhaanomar1200]

This series has been getting better and better.

[@TheFitzgeraldhottner]

Really interesting! Keep up the great work!

[@enelysionfields2376]

wow! These videos are like a gold mine for electrical engineers. I learned way more in this one video than all those other engineering channels combined. Keep it up!

[@johnespino886]

Wow the discussion on the power supply stuff and schematics really brought me back to my college days. Great, great research here!

[@kevinm3751]

WOW, now there was a metric ton of information. I am going to have to watch this one 10 more times to learn everything here (on my 3rd now). Thanks for the hard work of researching this!

[@RogerBarraud]

I suggest watching it 16 times, then Google "Tennessee Ernie Ford".

[@qubex]

If I’m not mistaken, it was the Cray-3’s troubled development lifecycle that led some wag to comment that “Gallium Arsenide is the [semiconductor] technology of tomorrow and always will be”. Just thought I’d share, given the preamble before the plunge into Gallium Nitrate.

[@leyasep5919]

But AsGa is not GaN.

[@RogerBarraud]

Nitride.

[@Xbob42]

For anyone wondering why a blue LED would be a very important invention, I looked it up as I guess they didn't feel like going into it on this video: Basically, it was the one LED color they still needed to make a white LED. Because of the massively increased efficiency of LED lights (50% of a white LED's used electricity creates light, while only 4% of an incandescent bulb's used electricity creates light) it means they're very easy to keep running in places with low amounts of power, and can easily be used for long periods of time on batteries. So it helped to massively decrease energy usage for everyone who uses lights in general, to providing good, quality, easily maintained and long-lasting light to places that desperately needed it. And that's just for light bulbs. The Blu-Ray itself, as I think might have been said in the video, on the other hand, is most definitely NOT one of the most important tech innovations ever. Unless there's some key fact about Blu-Ray that I'm missing, in which case I'm happy to hear a correction!

[@PETERJOHN101]

LED light, however, is not human biology friendly. It interferes with the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

[@ArthurBrionesP]

I don't understand most of what he says, but he says it so well I still watch Upscaled every single time!

[@leocomerford]

1:36 You have to admit that Gallium Nightride is the perfect name for an ‘80s revival. ;)

[@RaquelFoster]

These videos are at the perfect level for a software developer who dropped out of engineering school.

[@PinataOblongata]

Highly recommend Lex Fridman's discussions with Jim Keller and David Patterson.

[@RogerBarraud]

@@PinataOblongata In a philosophical sense, sure.

[@walkinmn]

Chris's videos are the best thing that has happened to Engadget in recent years. I think I know a lot about tech but Chris always has a lot of details and information of the industry and processes I didn't know.

[@AANation360]

Make a video about how blue LED's are the most important technological discovery!!

[@stretch654]

Wow! The sheer density of knowledge presented in this video is higher than most microchips. I’m suffering information overload.

[@ak_hoops]

Man this was a thorough video! I commend you for doing so much research. Learned a lot

[@lizunya1983]

upscaled is the only reason I watch any engadget, great content!

[@kevin42]

This was hands down one of the best explanations of the underlying physics iv heard/seen. Hats off to you guys. Although i wouldnt say no to an even more indepth explanation with more complex physics. But thats just me ;)

[@mepex]

This video is excellent, and extremely accurate, which I know is difficult to do, especially given the highly technical nature of the subject matter. But working in a chip company, and studying device physics and silicon manufacturing technology, I don't know of a single person in the field that pronounces it "sil-i-CON". Everyone pronounces the element "SIL-ikihn. Both pronunciations are correct, but you heard the gentleman speaking about Cray to use the latter pronunciation, as people in the field do. Great job Chris and team.

[@mayurkulkarni1990]

A very well-researched video, Didn't think I would find such video on youtube. Subbed!

[@antonnym214]

Those boys at Arizona State DFA (Don't Mess Around). Nice report. All good wishes!

[@SambitBiswas]

Damn. Engadget hitting HARD. This show is amazing.

[@firsthandaccount]

Anybody else been an Engadget fan since 2004? I remember the website launch haha. Awesome video guys!

[@FlockofAngels]

Amazing info! 😊

[@8KilgoreTrout4]

Good delivery. You didn't lose me for a second

[@bryaneditiontv600]

Man so good video, you really feel how much time you spend researching stuff keep it going

[@Vangriffeth]

This is one of the most informative videos on CPU architecture I have ever seen for a layman, thank you for this.

[@originalmagneto]

This is still one of the best youtube content series ever!!!

[@adityay525125]

A story on the status of Graphene batteries would be great.

[@motherflerkentannhauser8152]

Also costs too much to mass-produce. Done.

[@thomasreese2816]

There are companies producing them. Just because something DOES cost too much doesn't mean it can't be improved

[@samgee500]

How about Graphene processors?

[@robbiemein5062]

@@motherflerkentannhauser8152 that's not the problem, the problem is that there's no way to mass produce large sheets of it

[@bighands69]

@@thomasreese2816 Where are they going to source the graphene?

[@roebbiej]

Oh yeah, upscaled! Instantly hyped! :D

[@e_squared604]

I'm did a course on exactly this sort of stuff for part of my masters degree this year and I can safely say: this vid is solid and legit :)

[@spiffdandy77]

Excellent video, this guy is a great teacher. He knows how to communicate.

[@75IFFY]

This is a fantastic video. So much great information, and the examples on how things work was excellent. I wish this was around 20 years ago when I studied some of this at uni. I’m sure my lecturers would have found this very useful to explain how components function.

[@ceremonious_houseplant]

Again, top-notch dive into the subject by Engadget. Love it, please make more!

[@JoshuaPack]

keep this series going, love it!!!

[@martingriffiths9851]

This is the most interesting thing I have watched in months ! Either I need to get a more interesting life or you guys produced a heck of a video (choose now!).

[@RogerBarraud]

Both/And.

[@AANation360]

Wow fascinating. These are really amazing. Appreciate all the research that went into this.

[@内田ガネーシュ]

7:09 pfffff~ props for not using a hammer.

[@wedusk]

Really beginning to fall in love with this series.

[@AlanMeigs]

Wow, haven’t been back to Engadget in over 5 years, this was an incredible video!

[@themacker894]

Very well researched and informative. Nice job all around! Great channel.

[@pareshpandit]

Awesome job -- looking forward to more such informative pieces! :)

[@Dmhlcmb]

I searched for this video because I was so impressed with my Anker Nano charger. It’s tiny and I wanted to understand how it could be so much smaller and yet charge faster. Fascinating.

[@tylerdoop]

This is so cool!!! Thank you for the video, and thank you very much for providing sources. I love this kind of coverage b

[@mark879]

I was hesitant to watch this. However, I am glad I did. The topic was very well explained in this video. Subbed.

[@robertkessler6641]

What a great video. Very entertaining. Very informative. The effort put in really shows.

[@AsakuraClan]

This was super informative, thank you! Can you make a follow-up video about where Gallium is mined/produced? And it's impact on the environment?

[@thedresall]

Great content. Always an interesting topic. Something that makes you go "oh 🙇🏿‍♂️"

[@RaumBances]

Thanks for your considerations about 1% testing. This is actually what I focus on when I'm doing comparisons. I want stable vs. 10% faster than another configuration so I give 1% low high priority.

[@the-abhishek-yadav]

Totally mind bending, fantastic, awesome 🔥🔥😯😯😯. Hand down THE BEST TECH. SERIES ON KZbin. Please do next episode on FUTURE OF BATTERY TECHNOLOGY. THANKS CHRIS 😊👍

[@hydorah]

Quality video. I'm very pleasantly surprised!

[@sahandn9]

Much respect for the high quality research and video! I appreciate the depth of research work done to produce this great video. Thanks!

[@DavidB-tw9tp]

Really well-researched and presented! I love this kind of high quality content!

[@abdullahX001]

This was brilliant and this guy and his delivery is brilliant.

[@beku2283]

Awesome presentation! I have a background in electronics and I see that the information was accurate at a basic level and should also make sense on a laypersons level. The information was logically layed-out with who, what , where, why from beginning to end with solid facts. Thanks to Chris Schodt and his team!

[@AlaskanHulk]

Wow, awesome video! I’m just beginning to learn about microelectronic fab in my summer REU. This was an awesome supplemental!

[@biggityboggityboo8775]

GaN power switches are one thing but you still need the associated transformers/inductors/capacitors for power electronics. These cannot be shrunk unless switching frequencies go up. GaN can switch faster but this introduces problems of greater difficulty in EMI compliance. Also the GaN switches might have very low losses but the other power electronics have their associated losses and those aren't going anywhere. GaN will shrink things and increase efficiency but probably not to the level you think, at least for power converters. It could, however, do very nice things for processor speeds if it ever ends up in that application.

[@EGL24Xx]

GaNs: *switching really fucking fast* Hysteresis and other AC losses (skin and proximity effect): Am I a joke to you?

[@flavioalejandrobonilla7055]

Great research delivered into an easy to understand and exciting video. Kudos Chris -thank you!

[@nedjohnson6510]

Excellent presentation! A near-perfect blend of simplification without loss of necessary information. You didn't have to tell me it took a lot of research. To me, it was obvious. :D Thanks for the very enlightening talk.

[@GermanMythbuster]

Your making videos over 10 Years now and just now starting pubishing your sources? Dang that's ruff man. Sources are the backbone of good journalism, they should alway be included!

[@n.lyndley.9889]

Your You’re Different words, different meanings.

[@Anza_34832]

Well researched, comprehensive and easy to understand video. Excellent!

[@shoeslayer]

Liked and subscribed. The factual information, here, is profound and I now have another reason to be excited about technological growth.