GaN is the scientific abbreviation for the compound material Gallium Nitride and is an alloy of Gallium and Nitrogen. Gallium is abbreviated as “Ga” and Nitrogen is abbreviated as “N”, thus the abbreviation for the compound is “GaN”. GaN is used to fabricate transistors in a similar manner to other semiconductor materials such as silicon, an element with the abbreviation “Si” or germanium with the abbreviation “Ge”. Germanium was used to make some of the earliest semiconductor devices and then the industry learned how to make better semiconductor devices using silicon. Recent advancements in semiconductor processing technology have enabled gallium nitride transistors to be used in the place of silicon transistors in power supply applications.