BluGlass is a semiconductor manufacturer of cutting-edge, custom laser diodes for the global industrial, biotech, defence and scientific markets. Billy Friend explores how the company is pioneering GaN laser technology with a unique value proposition to carve out a niche within the fast-growing sector.
For many years, Taiwan has been the world’s primary manufacturer of advanced semiconductor chips and technology. Extreme chip shortages over the past few years have highlighted the pitfalls of this dependency, prompting many countries to pass legislation and funding initiatives to support the development of domestic semiconductor industries.
A recent paper by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) called on the Australian government to invest $1.5 billion to facilitate an industry for the single most important technology underpinning leading-edge applications – semiconductors.
According to the report, “bold action is warranted. Continuing to do what we did before is not an option because it will undermine the national interest. A new approach is needed that’s in part heretical to our old market-based approach but is driven by necessity: government intervention that works in tandem with industry expertise and drive.”
New South Wales is leading the charge with stage two of its Western Sydney Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility to focus on manufacturing of advanced semiconductor and electronics to address sovereign capability needs in defence and aerospace. A signatory for the new facility is BluGlass Limited, Australia’s only vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturer.
BluGlass’ executive chair James Walker explained Australia has to be smart when choosing where to spend its semiconductor dollars to grow a real ecosystem.
“When I think of the semiconductor space, it’s going to be really hard for Australia to create a brand-new mainstream, high value industry without carving out a unique niche,” he said.
“You’re competing against countries which have been pioneering and manufacturing this technology for years and their technology is very advanced and their scale and maturity means costs are now really low. I believe BluGlass has the right strategy – we’ve picked a high value niche where we can have an influence.
“Australia, for example, should look to focus on creating a compound semiconductor industry (new disruptive semiconductor materials starting to displace traditional silicon semiconductors due to their higher power and other unique advantages) which, will in turn support many advanced industries, including our local renewable energy and quantum computing sectors.”
Spun out of research from Macquarie University in 2006, BluGlass was initially focused on commercialising its proprietary gallium nitride (GaN) remote plasma chemical vapour deposition (RPCVD) manufacturing technology. The company listed on the ASX shortly after its inception to raise capital, with a view to replace the more common manufacturing process called metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) in the LED market.
“With 93 patents around the world, BluGlass has the keys to this RPCVD technology,” Walker said.
“Compared with MOCVD, it offers manufacturers (such as BluGlass) several commercial advantages due to its lower temperature, and low hydrogen growth process enabling higher brightness and higher power GaN lasers. RPCVD also uses less dangerous chemicals, meaning it can be manufactured safer, cleaner and hopefully, it should be more cost effective.”
The company has come a long way since its early R&D beginnings, transitioning over the past two years to focus on direct-to-market GaN laser diodes in in-demand and underserved wavelengths and offering the market flexible form factors.
“GaN is going to become one of the most important semiconductor materials in the world, including in the manufacture of, blue and green lasers, particularly for industrial manufacturing, augmented and virtual reality applications and quantum computing,” Walker added.
A pivot to laser diodes
The first silicon semiconductor device was made commercially available in 1954. The silicon transistor experienced a meteoric rise through the 70s and 80s, but engineers have since looked for an alternative due to the slowdown of silicon’s innovation capacity.
This is where compound semiconductors such as GaN come into play. GaN material is not a new discovery, but the use cases for the technology have become much more defined, geared toward high-performing products such as industrial cutting and welding, 3D printing, augmented and virtual reality, electric and autonomous vehicles, renewables, medical diagnostics, and quantum computing. Essentially, GaN provides higher efficiency, higher power, faster speeds, and lower costs than traditional silicon.
Despite its many competitive advantages, GaN laser diodes currently suffer from significant optical and resistive loss compared to GaN-based LEDs with conversion efficiencies around 45 per cent (compared to 90 per cent in LEDs). Contact and series resistance can account for up to 50 per cent of the power consumed in GaN based laser diodes.
BluGlass’ RPCVD technology enables novel laser designs to address this performance loss, creating higher brightness and higher efficiency lasers.
These novel designs replace the highly glossy materials in traditional laser diode designs by combining the best of traditional nitride growth techniques with its own unique low temperature, low hydrogen nitride growth process. Walker explained BluGlass’ journey so far:
“In the early years of BluGlass, the key focus was commercialising the company’s unique deposition equipment and process in the LED market. As LED technology has scaled and matured, it has become increasingly commoditised. Laser diode chips can sell for anywhere from 100-1000x more than LED chips. the capital equipment market also presents significant challenges. Moving away from being a hardware manufacturer, and the challenge of licensing technology to the big players; and their need for low prices and huge quantities.
“About two and a half years ago, we had a review to identify where we can apply our unique technology to have an influence on that market. Looking at markets where we can create a niche and become a self-reliant company by applying better technology to ultimately make the whole market better and larger.”
This review led BluGlass to GaN laser diodes, which is a US$2.5 billion burgeoning market, with very few competitors and high barriers to market entry.
“The shift in focus has been completely deliberate, leveraging our patented technology and manufacturing equipment to make GaN-based laser diodes. Within this market we’re focusing on three sectors – industrial applications, medical diagnostics, and research – which are a combined US$780 million opportunity. When you start to think about the numbers, the impact an Australian company can have on the world stage becomes impressive and significant.”
With epitaxy infrastructure (the first stage of laser diode manufacturing) already in place at its Silverwater facility, Walker said BluGlass used its years of experience making GaN LEDs to transition to GaN laser diodes.
“From a technology point of view, it wasn’t too much of a leap in manufacturing the first laser diode stages but we didn’t have the downstream processing capability . In the last year, we’ve strengthened the Board by adding Jean-Michel Pelaprat, the founder of one of the most successful blue laser diode companies in the US. That then allowed us to change the executive team, where we brought in Jim Haden who has over 30 years of experience specifically in the laser diode space.”
As Australia does not have laser diode manufacturing talent or infrastructure, BluGlass’ initially planned to outsource its downstream processing stages to contract manufacturers in the US, with the view of one day bringing those skills and processes in house. With Jim Haden at the helm, BluGlass took advantage of a ‘once-in-a- lifetime opportunity’ to acquire a laser diode manufacturing facility lease in Silicon Valley in May this year.
“It was a significant milestone for us in that the $160 million worth of wafers we can make in Silverwater, we now have the capacity to turn into $160 million of laser diodes at our Silicon Valley fab,” Walker said.
“Our facility in Silicon Valley has almost all of the manufacturing processes already and we have obtained the requisite EPA approvals. The facility was an indium phosphide laser diode fab, so we are converting it to GaN laser processing and slowly bringing in-house our processes from contract manufacturers.”
Walker estimates BluGlass’ US$2.5 million fab acquisition would have cost the company roughly US$40 million cost to build from the ground up.
“It’s been game-changing,” he emphasised. “We’ve got all the early skills and patented technology here in Australia, with downstream processing capability in Silicon Valley. Importantly, we’re hiring laser diode experts to help us build our laser diode products.”
Globally, there are only two other major manufacturers of GaN laser diodes focusing on blue light: Japanese company Nichia and Osram based in Germany. Walker said BluGlass’ major point of difference is its flexibility across wavelengths, packaging and order volumes.
“We think it’s important to be nimble to produce a range of wavelengths to suit different needs. At present, customers have to adapt their downstream processing to match the limited laser diode packaging. We can package our lasers in different form factors to make
it easy for customers to integrate them into end-products. We’ve got quite a few potential customers who are excited about a smaller, nimble supplier entering the space.”
In June this year, BluGlass shipped its first laser diode product prototypes to an initial customer to gain valuable customer feedback. These alpha products have undergone internal preliminary performance and life-time reliability testing and are at a stage where customers can assess the products in their own development stage applications.
Walker told Manufacturers’ Monthly BluGlass’ laser diode performance improvements are ongoing with its 405nm and 420nm products progressing towards commercial reliability.
“Jim Haden has come into the team to solve the challenge of ensuring our lasers last as long as we need them to for the industries we are focused on,” he said.
In parallel, BluGlass is educating the local industry and investor community about its technology and market opportunity. The company recently hosted a webinar with Nobel Laureate and inventor of GaN semiconductors, Professor Shuji Nakamura.
“We are really trying to educate Australian investors about the importance of semiconductors. Shuji believes that GaN chips will be used for almost everything going forward.”
While Australia is trying to establish a semiconductor manufacturing base, Walker warns that we must find the balance because of our small population and clear challenges.
“Building a semiconductor industry, picking the right industries and materials where we can play, and then creating a local skill base, will enable us to become less reliant on overseas supply chains.
“The industry shouldn’t be completely government funded, but we need to build the right skills and infrastructure here to support innovation and manufacturing sovereignty. Australia’s research and development scheme is world leading but semiconductor development and commercialisation takes time and we are very much at risk of being left behind.”
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