On 03/07/2025 10:03, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:Side note: For some reason, I don't know if its a setup or not, but there is a show Mystery of Blind Frog ranch that I watch when I am bored. They "apparently" found rocks in a flooded cave that had Gallium hidden inside them. I thought it was rather odd.On Thu, 3 Jul 2025 02:55:01 -0000 (UTC)As an element, yes, it is much more expensive. I bought some gallium metal, because it is fun to play with - but it was not a cheap toy!
John Savard <quadibloc@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>On Sun, 29 Jun 2025 20:41:05 +0000, quadibloc wrote:>
>In a discussion on the subject, someone noted that GaN has a high defect>
density. I presume that it is not as high as that of Silicon Carbide,
though, or the notion of using it to build a microprocessor would be too
obviously stupid for words.
I seem to have presumed wrong.
Apparently the defect density of Silicon Carbide is 10^4 defects per
square centimetre... and that of Gallum Nitride is, at best, ten times as
high. (At worst, throw in another factor of 10^5.)
>
>
I know next to nothing about this, but pshurely Gallium is a lot rarer (and
thus more expensive) than Silicon?
>
However, the cost of making devices from a particular element or molecule is vastly more complicated than the rarity of the raw material. You can pick up a rock from your garden and you'll have enough silicon atoms for a wafer, but only traces of gallium. The cost of a silicon wafer (even before putting anything on it) will exceed the worth of its weight in gallium by a factor of 20 or so. It's the purification and growing virtually defect-free crystals that costs money - the cost of the raw material elements is almost negligible.
GaN is seeing increasing use in power electronics - a GaN power FET can switch a lot faster, has lower resistance, and is physically smaller than equivalent Si transistors. But they cost several times as much, largely because of the economies of scale for making them. (Power electronics is a lot more tolerant of defects than CPUs, because the geometries are vastly bigger.)
| Date | Sujet | # | Auteur | |
| 3 Jul 25 |  Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 8 | John Savard | |
| 3 Jul 25 |  Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 7 | Kerr-Mudd, John | |
| 3 Jul 25 |  Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 6 | David Brown | |
| 3 Jul 25 |  Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 3 | Michael S | |
| 3 Jul 25 |   Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 1 | Stefan Monnier | |
| 4 Jul 25 | Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 1 | David Brown | |
| 3 Jul 25 | Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 1 | Chris M. Thomasson | |
| 4 Jul 25 | Re: Gallium Nitride Microprocessors | 1 | Terje Mathisen |
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