Setting new standards for MBE
Riber and IntelliEPI qualify largest MBE system for mass production of III-V compound semiconductors
Epitaxy equipment manufacturer Riber has has announced a major milestones in a joint development program with IntelliEPI for the qualification of the new MBE 8000 production platform.
Riber’s new flagship product, the MBE 8000 is believed to be the highest capacity MBE production tool available on the market, able to handle batches of eight 150 mm (6 inches) or four 200 mm (8 inches) wafers. The design of this machine benefits from over 20 years’ experience in production MBE systems.
Following the delivery of the first MBE 8000 platform and after qualification work carried out in close cooperation with IntelliEPI, Riber says that the results obtained have exceeded expectations particularly in terms of uniformities, defect densities, increasing yield, and interface abruptness, which is key for superlattice structures to achieve high performance lasers.
These performance figures combined with a high level of run-to-run repeatability control in large-scale production will enable a new generation lasers, according to the company, in particular for VCSEL technology with significant market opportunities in the field of smartphone under-display facial recognition.
In addition to the VCSEL market, the precise control of the doping uniformity and the processes stability offered by the MBE 8000 platform will also enhance microelectronic device performances, such as conductivity.
Over the past few months, as results were disclosed to several industrial customers, interest for this machine has grown quickly, leading to discussions for potential purchase, says Riber.
According to Yung-Chung Kao, IntelliEPI president and CEO: “From the initial evaluation so far, this Riber MBE 8000 has shown very impressive performance in terms of being able to produce high quality epi materials over such a large substrate platen area with excellent composition and thickness uniformity across the 8x6 inch platen. With this improvement, the MBE 8000 platform offers a solution to make large-scale production MBE technology more competitive especially for high performance and high throughput market opportunities."
Christian Dupont, Riber’s CEO : ”Thanks to the efforts of Riber and IntelliEPI teams, we have reached a major step for MBE 8000 qualification. The results provided by the machine exceed our initial objectives. With an optimum cost of ownership and large capacity the MBE 8000 equipment has strong commercial prospects. In addition, our milestone in this joint development program with IntelliEPI demonstrates the capability to bring MBE technology in high volume semiconductor industry.”
