News

30 April 2009

 

Aixtron and SemiLEDs report successful fabrication of GaN-based blue LED chips on 6-inch sapphire wafers

Aixtron AG of Aachen, Germany says that its collaboration with SemiLEDs of Boise, ID, USA has resulted in the successful fabrication of GaN-based blue LED chips on 6-inch sapphire wafers. Furthermore, Aixtron adds that the process is sufficiently close to production compatibility that SemiLEDs should soon be able to reap the rewards from larger wafers.

The 6-inch sapphire wafer process is based on MOCVD and a series of follow-on device fabrication steps. Specifically, the LED structure was deposited on a 1000 µm thick 6-inch sapphire substrate using an AIX 2800G4 HT MOCVD reactor in 6x6-inch configuration.

“Brightness and efficiency are encouraging even though we are only a small step away from our existing and mature 4-inch sapphire process. Judging from the uniformity of the 18,000 1x1 mm Vertical LED on Metal Alloy chips from one single wafer, we can clearly see the yield advantage of this larger wafer MOCVD process. One of the contributing factors to yield enhancement is the significantly reduced edge area compared to the area equivalent of nine 2-inch wafers,” says Dr Chuong Tran, president and COO of SemiLEDs.

General manager of Aixtron Greater China, Dr Christian Geng adds: “I expect that once the price of a 6-inch substrate becomes competitive many of our customers will convert their AIX 2800G4 HT systems from 42x2-inch to 6x6-inch configuration since it merely requires the exchange of the so-called Satellite Disks.”

See related item:

Sapphire substrate market to grow at 21% to $400m by 2012

See: Aixtron Company Profile

Search: Aixtron SemiLEDs GaN blue LED chips Sapphire wafers MOCVD AIX 2800G4 HT

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