Gallium nitride is already making waves in power chips, and could be ready to enter the data centre and your mobile phone. Silicon’s status as the material underpinning the semiconductor industry has been unchallenged for decades. But as businesses continue to demand more powerful and energy-efficient devices and digital systems, other options are entering the fray. Chips based on gallium nitride, or GaN, are becoming increasingly popular among manufacturers, particularly those developing semiconductors for power electronics, and could be ready to make a sustained challenge for silicon’s crown.
