AXT Customer Qualifies new GaAs line
New GaAs production site expands capabilities and increases capacity
AXT, a manufacturer of compound semiconductor wafer substrates, has announced that one of its largest GaAs wafer substrate customers has formally qualified the company’s new GaAs wafer processing facilities.
“Among the customers now qualified on the new GaAs manufacturing line, we are pleased to announce that one of our largest GaAs customers has qualified our new manufacturing sites for volume production,” said Morris Young, chief executive officer. “This Tier-1 customer has among the highest quality, safety and environmental standards in its industry. Its confirmation is an important milestone for AXT’s manufacturing relocation, and will enable us to meaningfully ramp production from our new locations to meet our customers’ needs over the coming quarters.”
During the fourth quarter of 2019, AXT transferred its GaAs crystal growth ingot production to its new manufacturing facility in Kazuo, a city approximately 250 miles from Beijing. Wafer processing for GaAs was relocated to its new manufacturing facility in Dingxing, a city approximately 75 miles from Beijing. AXT began offering wafers from Dingxing for customer qualification in 2019, and began customer site qualifications later that year.
“Our new manufacturing sites are optimised for best-practice manufacturing techniques, and we have installed state-of-the-art equipment. Both are designed to meet and exceed the current rigorous safety and environmental standards in China,” Young continued. “We now have capacity in place to meet today’s demand for a wide variety of high-end applications, with ample space to expand as demand increases and new applications come to market. I am proud of the teamwork and dedication of our entire AXT team, making this significant accomplishment possible. We are now well positioned to push our technology to new levels of performance required by current emerging applications, and to engage the marketplace with confidence and enthusiasm.”
AXT began manufacturing its GaAs substrate wafers in the Tongzhou district of Beijing, China in 2000. In 2015, the Beijing city government selected Tongzhou for its new municipal headquarters. Along with many other businesses asked to relocate their manufacturing lines in order to create room and upgrade the district, AXT was instructed to relocate its GaAs manufacturing line.
