Category Archives: LED Manufacturing

March 19, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Wafering tool supplier Silicon Genesis (SiGen) developed its second-generation production system for fabricating thin-silicon solar wafers, as well as high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED), and 3D semiconductor packaging wafers. The system tailored for silicon, GaAs, germanium, SiC, GaN and sapphire materials.

The new GenII PolyMax system targets high volumes, aiming to replace wire wafer saws with a kerf-free wafering tool. The system creates thinner wafers than are possible with wire-based slicing. The proton beam-induced wafering design was created over 6 years with numerous equipment and solar cell partners.

SiGen has made free-standing 20um, 50um, 85um, 120um, and 150um of 125mm and 156mm industry standard square kerf-free monocrystalline silicon solar-cell wafers.

SiGen’s beam-induced wafering technology is capable of supplying thin high-quality materials to HB-LED and packaging/3D structures sectors, at a lower price point than competitive technologies, and with less waste, the company reports.

Silicon Genesis Corporation (SiGen) provides engineered substrate process technology for the semiconductor, display, optoelectronics, and solar markets. For more information on Silicon Genesis, visit http://www.sigen.com.

Also read: Silicon wafers sliced to 10% conventional bulk with Hyperion 3

March 16, 2012 — AIXTRON SE sold 5 multi-wafer metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems to a new customer, Huaian Aucksun Optoelectronics Technology Ltd., China. The tools will grow materials for high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs). 

The order includes 2 AIX 2600G3 IC reactors in 49 x 2" wafer configurations, and 3 AIX2800G4 reactors in 60 x 2" set ups. The tools boast high uniformity and throughput. Huaian Aucksun Optoelectronics Technology Ltd., China placed the order in Q1 2012, with delivery slated for Q2 2012. AIXTRON will have a local support team install and commission the new reactors in the company’s state-of-the-art cleanrooms in Huaian, China.

AIXTRON opened a MOCVD training center in China, based in Suzhou, this week, with a goal of improving LED manufacturing in the country.

Developing and producing LED wafer materials with AIXTRON MOCVD is "an exciting new venture" for Aucksun Opto, said Kai Chen, GM of Aucksun Opto, noting that AIXTRON’s local service team will assist in internal efforts to ramp up production. Aucksun Opto also has plans to produce HB-LEDs based on gallium nitride (GaN) materials, which AIXTRON will support as well.

Huaian Aucksun Optoelectronics Technology Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiangsu AUCKSUN Co., Ltd., formerly known as Jiangsu Aucksun Metal Co., Ltd. It primarily serves information technology (IT) manufacturing companies.

AIXTRON provides MOCVD production technologies for semiconductor devices, such as LEDs, lasers, transistors and solar cells. For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6, DE000A1MMEF7; NASDAQ: AIXG, ISIN US0096061041), see www.aixtron.com.

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March 16, 2012 — AIXTRON SE (FSE:AIXA, NASDAQ:AIXG) opened a training and demonstration center at SINANO – the Suzhou Institute for Nanotechnology and Nanobionics in China. The center will bring metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) knowledge to future semiconductor and light emitting diode (LED) manufacturing professionals. The center is located in the Suzhou Industrial Park.

AIXTRON plans to combine industrial and institutional research at the MOCVD center, offering high-quality training on the latest microelectronics manufacturing processes. Training courses will use AIXTRON’s latest generation CRIUS II-XL and AIX G5 HT systems in a production cleanroom environment, laboratories, and classroom training facilities that occupy a total area of 350sq.m. The goal is better MOCVD system utilization times and higher yields through operational efficiency, maintenance routines, process optimization and fab management, said Dr. Nicolas Muesgens, director of the AIXTRON Training and Demonstration Center. The Suzhou center will also pay special attention to operational health and safety issues and to environmental protection, adhering to and promoting German, international, and Chinese product-safety and waste-management standards.

A cooperative agreement between AIXTRON and SINANO will facilitate the full process and characterization of LEDs. The goal is to improve the quality, effeciency, and cost of China’s domestically produced LEDs, aligned with the government’s goal of global LED leadership, said a spokesperson for SINANO. Chinese customers will gain deep process knowledge at the new center. Applications to attend a training course can be submitted at www.aixtron.com/Service/Training.

China is encouraging LED lighting at the national and regional level, noted AIXTRON president and CEO Paul Hyland. The center will bring the "very latest AIXTRON technologies" to customers in this field, along with high-quality training for LEDs and other nanotechnologies such as gallium nitride on silion (GaN-on-Si) development, he said.

An opening ceremony welcomed the German Consul General in China, a representative of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), many AIXTRON customers, and university and research institute partners from across Greater China.

AIXTRON provides MOCVD production technologies for semiconductor devices, such as LEDs, lasers, transistors and solar cells. For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6, DE000A1MMEF7; NASDAQ: AIXG, ISIN US0096061041), see www.aixtron.com.

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March 15, 2012 — SAFC Hitech, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group, opened a multi-million dollar (US) 270000sq.ft. expansion at its facility in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, increasing capacity for high-quality Trimethylgallium (TMG), Triethylgallium (TEG) and Trimethylindium (TMI) precursor production serving high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) manufacturers.

The site will also produce atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) precursors for silicon semiconductor fabs and offer regional transfilling capability and technical service and support. SAFC Hitech will transistion its existing Taiwan operations to the new Kaohsiung facility.

The site hosts integrated inert atmosphere transfilling stations, state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation for the detection of ultra-low metallic and oxygen-containing contaminants and dedicated cylinder preparation and packaging areas. The site is ISO 9001 certified for quality, with ISO 14001 certification for safety and environmental protocols in the works.

Taiwan is "a strategic regional hub" for SAFC Hitech’s ultra-high-purity metal organic and silicon precursors for thin film deposition during micro/optoelectronics production. The rise in demand for LEDs and particularly HB-LEDs is driving increased collaboration with customers in the Asia-Pacific region, said Dr. Geoff Irvine, VP of Marketing and Business Development at SAFC Hitech. The Kaohsiung site can handle and characterize highly specialized laboratory-scale chemicals and features a dedicated customer support center.

Also read: Taiwan’s LED makers’ and packagers’ 2011 results

The site opening ceremony was attended by Kaohsiung City Mayor Chiu Chen, and senior company executives: Rakesh Sachdev, Sigma-Aldrich president and CEO; Gilles Cottier, SAFC president; and Philip Rose, SAFC Hitech president.

SAFC Hitech is a chemistry company serving microelectronics and optoelectronics manufacturing sectors. Further information can be found at http://www.safchitech.com.

SAFC is the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Internet: www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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March 14, 2012 — MATHESON debuted the Lasso System, a customer-centric supply chain and inventory management system that can monitor the location and operating status of gas products and other highly valued assets in the company’s REAL-Time Gas and Asset Management System.

The Lasso System uses radio frequency identification (RFID) and pressure monitoring technology to monitoring the inventory, movement and operating pressure of compressed gas cylinders. Lasso reports critical parameters of interest to compressed gases users, with gas cost and usage analytics generation to facilitate gas management decisions and costs management.

Also read: 300mm fabs and the role of bulk specialty gas supply and Metrology-aided gas purification development

MATHESON supplies industrial, medical, specialty and electronic gases, gas handling equipment, high performance purification systems, engineering and gas management services, and on-site gas generation. The company is the largest subsidiary of the Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation Group, Japanese supplier of industrial gases. Learn more at www.mathesongas.com.

March 14, 2012 – Marketwire — Twin Creeks Technologies, semiconductor and solar cell manufacturing equipment supplier, debuted its first commercial wafer production system that reduces solar module and semiconductor device wafers by up to 90%.

The tool uses proton induced exfoliation (PIE) to generate monocrystalline wafers that are less than 1/10th the thickness of conventional wafers. This eliminates excess silicon material below the active substrate, using atoms as a scalpel to cleave wafers. Hyperion embeds a uniform layer of high-energy protons, which are hydrogen ions, into monocrystalline wafers to a depth of up to 20um. When heated, this new layer expands, cleaving the top surface from the donor wafer to form an ultra-thin wafer that is otherwise identical to the original. The ultra-thin wafer is then further processed into solar modules or semiconductors. Creating wafers with PIE eliminates the kerf, or wasted silicon from mechanical slicing.

Hyperion is compatible with various monocrystalline wafers, including germanium, gallium nitride (GaN), sapphire and silicon carbide (SiC) for power electronics and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

Initial applications have focused on crystalline silicon solar cells, with the process expertise gained from these installations being used for new applications, such as CMOS sensors. Hyperion notes that cost reductions are achieved from reducing the silicon used, as well as eliminating wafer saws, furnaces, and crystal pullers.

Hyperion wafers are thin enough to be bendable, opening opportunities in flexible electronics and solar modules.

Twin Creeks’ intellectual property for creating and handling ultra-thin wafers as well as producing finished solar cells can be licensed to Twin Creeks customers. The company, in collaboration with the state of Mississippi, has built a commercial demonstration plant in Senatobia, Mississippi where Twin Creeks and its customers can fine-tune processes for generating ultra-thin solar modules and wafers with Hyperion.

Twin Creeks Technologies provides manufacturing equipment for thin crystalline wafers for the solar and semiconductor industries. Learn more at www.twincreekstechnologies.com.

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March 13, 2012 – BUSINESS WIRE — Intematix, phosphor and phosphor component maker for high-quality light emitting diodes (LEDs), received $16.2 million in funding from current investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Crosslink Capital, as well as a new financial investor.

The funds will go into facility expansion, working capital, and development of phosphor products and ChromaLit remote phosphor products for the LED industry. Intematix operates R&D, manufacturing, business, and support operations in the US, Asia, and Europe.

LED lighting has made gains in efficiency, but color quality and thermal management in small form factors remain challenges. Intematix phosphors are used to create white light comparable to conventional sources. ChromaLit remote phosphor systems have shown more efficient cooling, enabling more compact lights.

The company is in a position to "advance solid-state lighting technology across the world, and to benefit from the current intense market focus on quality of light," said Alain Harrus, board member of Intematix and partner at Crosslink Capital.

Intematix Corporation is a materials developer, providing customizable, patented phosphors and remote phosphor components for high quality, energy efficient LEDs. To learn more, visit www.intematix.com.

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March 9, 2012 — Media tablets, a consumer electronics product sector experiencing "remarkably rapid ascension," will become the fourth-largest application for semiconductors globally by 2014, up from 35th in 2010 and 8th in 2011, and predicted 5th in 2012, according to the IHS iSuppli Application Market Forecast Tool.

In 2014, semiconductor revenues from media tablet consumption will hit $18.2 billion, up from $2.6 billion in 2010, the year that Apple introduced the iPad.

Rank (2014) Application Revenue
1 Mobile Handsets $58,589
2 Mobile PCs $48,239
3 Desktop PCs $19,213
4 Media Tablets $18,447
5 LCD TVs $17,489

“The speed of the media tablet’s rise from near insignificance to top-tier prominence is unprecedented in the history of the global semiconductor industry,” said Dale Ford, head of electronics & semiconductor research for IHS, who attributes much of this growth to Apple’s iPad. The global semiconductor industry will need to realign to accommodate the fast growth and vast size of the media tablet market, Ford said.

  2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
USD Millions $2,585 $6,864 $10,673 $15,253 $18,447 $18,162
Figure. Global media tablet semiconductor forecast (USD Millions). SOURCE: IHS iSuppli

In the past, the PC microprocessor boom lifted Intel Corp. and the cellphone chipset rise brought along Qualcomm Inc, Ford said. "Media tablets will generate semiconductor demand that is much more broadly diversified, spreading the opportunity among a wider set of suppliers than previous platforms did."

The winners? Application processors, baseband and radio frequency (RF) chips, NAND flash and DRAM, wireless ICs, image sensors, micro electro mechanical sensors (MEMS), light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and power management ICs.

Media tablets and handsets are a key driving force in reducing semiconductor industry consolidation, developed in more mature markets like PCs, Ford noted.

Mobile handsets will become the world’s largest semiconductor application in 2012, for the first time exceeding mobile PCs as the leading chip segment.
 
The IHS iSuppli Application Market Forecast Tool from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS) is available at http://www.isuppli.com/Semiconductor-Value-Chain/Pages/Consumer-Electronics-Semiconductors-to-See-Largest-Decline-in-Q4-2011.aspx?PRX

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March 8, 2012 — AIXTRON SE received a new metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems order from existing customer Quantum Wafer Inc., China. The new contract is for three more AIXTRON MOCVD units. All systems will be dedicated to processing high-brightness light emitting diode (HB-LED) wafers based on gallium nitride (GaN) materials.

The order was placed in Q4 2011 and delivery will take place during Q1 2012. AIXTRON’s local support team will install and commission the new reactors in a state-of-the-art clean-room facility at Quantum Wafer’s factory in China.

"We have been very impressed with the performance of the two 42 x 2" AIXTRON G4 MOCVD systems that we purchased in 2011," Dr. Shu Yuan, General Manager of Quantum Wafer Inc., comments. "We therefore wish to add more equipment from AIXTRON, as we implement the next step in our strategic plans."

Quantum Wafer Inc. is a semiconductor optoelectronic materials and devices company located at the heart of the Zhujiang Delta Industry Area of China. A manufacturer and provider of semiconductor wafers, the company supplies materials for the manufacturing of LED devices, as used in a wide range of applications such as LED TVs, mobile phones, solid-state lighting, large-screen displays, traffic lights, etc.

For further information on AIXTRON (FSE: AIXA, ISIN DE000A0WMPJ6; NASDAQ: AIXG, ISIN US0096061041) visit www.aixtron.com.

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March 7, 2012 – Marketwire — Meaglow Ltd., MOCVD and epitaxy supplier, launched a range of nitrogen-rich indium nitride (InN) wafers for research and industry development around the compound semiconductor material.

Indium nitride (InN) can be alloyed with gallium nitride (GaN) to build light-emitting diodes (LEDs). InN is also being developed for solar cells, high-speed transistors and other applications.

Research InN samples have been fabricated with >30% excess nitrogen. "Excess nitrogen is seen when forming the material at relatively low temperatures using plasma based nitrogen sources. These plasma sources provide the extra potential energy needed for nitrogen rich material to form. To a greater, or lesser, extent excess nitrogen species are probably present in most InN samples, as plasma techniques are commonly used," Meaglow Ltd’s chief scientist, Dr. K. Scott Butcher, published in Applied Physics Letters 101 (2012) 011913.

Nitrogen-rich InN could resolve InN’s surface current problem, enabling wider adoption of the material.

Meaglow Ltd. produces a range of epitaxy equipment (migration enhanced afterglow), MBE & MOCVD accessories, and specialized semiconductor thin films for research institutes and industry. Learn more at www.meaglow.com.

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