Jan. 28, 2008 – AXT has “retained the services” of Grant Elliot, who has deep experience with III-V crystal growth, particularly GaAs and GaP, saying it wants to extend its R&D capabilities in crystal growing processes, primarily to enhance the company’s longtime core area of vertical gradient freeze (VGF) technology and also into liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC).

Elliot has more than 40 years of materials R&D and engineering experience from oxides and high-temperature intermetallic compounds to III-V semiconductors, having helped develop and augment III-V crystal growth capabilities of Hewlett Packard’s optoelectronics division. His primary areas of expertise are LEC growth of gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium phosphide (GaP).

“We are very committed to developing world-class Cz and LEC capabilities in order to broaden our product offering into areas that we do not currently participate in and to improve our manufacturing cost structure for certain current products, in which these technologies offer the most appropriate level of performance,” said Phil Yin, AXT chairman/CEO, in a statement. “We continue to focus on our internal competencies with an eye towards providing a more comprehensive product offering to meet our customers’ future device requirements.”