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半导体材料与技术是推动信息时代前进的原动力和发动机,是现代高科技的核心与先导。半个多世纪的实践表明IT产业的每一次重大发展都是从半导体材料与技术的进步和革命性突破开始。二十世纪七十年代以来以硅材料为基础的半导体和微电子工业一直遵循着神奇的“摩尔定律”（即每十八个月集成度提高一倍,而成本降低一半）向前发展。然而由于量子效应、磁场及其热效应等影响,专家预测硅半导体芯片的特征尺寸到2010年将达到极限（约0.07mm）。包括光通讯在内的当今信息技术的持续快速发展也对半导体材料的性能提出了更高的要求。本文对在光电领域具有广阔应用前景的第三代半导体材料氮化镓（GaN）的发展现状、技术特点、市场机会和面临的挑战进行了论述和分析。
Semiconductor materials and technologies are the driving force behind the progress of the information age and the engine, and are the core and forerunner of modern high technology. More than half a century of practice shows that every major development in the IT industry begins with advances and revolutionary breakthroughs in semiconductor materials and technologies. The silicon-based semiconductor and microelectronics industries since the 1970s have followed the magical “Moore’s Law” (that is, doubling the integration every 18 months and reducing costs by half). However, due to the effects of quantum effects, magnetic fields and their thermal effects, experts predict that the feature size of silicon semiconductor chips will reach the limit (about 0.07mm) by 2010. The continuous rapid development of information technology, including optical communications, also places higher demands on the performance of semiconductor materials. In this paper, the development status, technical characteristics, market opportunities and challenges of GaN, the third generation semiconductor material with broad application prospect in optoelectronic field, are discussed and analyzed.