Gallium Nitride (GaN) materials have long been regarded as great alternatives and enhancements to GaAs and silicon-based counterparts for applications demanding high power and high frequency performance. Thanks to advances in growth techniques based upon silicon substrates, the cost of GaN has been reduced significantly during recent years. We are starting to see accelerated adoptions of GaN materials not just in traditional applications, such as RF power amplifiers for wireless base-stations, but also in new frontiers such as RF energy sources, transistors for consumer electronics, automotive devices, and gas- and bio-sensors.

GaN devices have the potential to deliver much higher power, at reduced device sizes than silicon or GaAs. Consequently, it is much more challenging to handle the heat that the GaN die generate. It is critical to improve die bonding techniques to help dissipate the heat out of the GaN die to the heat sink with an overall consideration of performance, reliability, and cost.