May 12, 2006 – Crystal IS, Green Island, NY, says it has developed a new manufacturing technique to grow a crystal that can be sliced and polished to be used as a substrate for use in high-power RF electronics, blue, and UV optoelectronics.

Until recently, low-defect native AlN substrates have only been available in small pieces (1-in. or less) and typically of irregular shapes, making them unsuitable for high volume wafer fabrication, noted Ding Day, CEO of Crystal IS, in a statement. Other techniques can produce ‘quasi-bulk’ AlN substrates, but involve non-native substrates and result in more than 100,000x more defect densities than a native substrate.

Crystal IS has developed a patented technique for bulk AlN crystal growth, enabling manufacture of 2-in. aluminum nitride (AlN) substrates with high thermal conductivity and a low lattice mismatch to the device layers, offering advantages in reliability, operating power, and able to reach wavelengths in the deep UV spectrum. These substrates currently have 50% single-crystal usable area, with efforts underway to increase that to 100% by 2007.

“The release of low-defect 2-inch AlN substrates will make this technology compatible with most optoelectronic process lines and will enable the commercialization of deep UV optoelectronic products,” Day said.