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Technical Insight

Materials and Equipment (Materials and Equipment)

Accent buys I-V measurement technology Accent Optical Technologies (Bend, OR) has acquired the intellectual property relating to GaAsCode Ltd s pulsed current-voltage (I-V) measurement instrument. GaAsCode s system measures conditions that exist in practical RF, microwave and millimeter wave circuits. The system is designed for FETs, HEMTs, HBTs and BJTs as well as lasers and photodetectors. Accent will incorporate this technology into its product line and officially launch new products early in the third quarter of this year. Finalized in April for an undisclosed sum, the GaAsCode acquisition extends Accent s products from materials process control to device and IC process control. Accent passes mapper milestone In more news, Accent has sold its 100th RPM 4000 rapid photoluminescence mapper system (see ) to laser and LED manufacturer Nova Crystals. Accent s system generates photoluminescence wafer maps to provide information on epitaxial wafers and devices structures, including alloy composition and film uniformity, material quality and the presence of defects. The first RPM system was launched just over two years ago and was followed last year by the RPM 4000 model, which is a fully-automated room temperature PL mapping system complete with wafer handler. "The demand for the rapid photoluminescence mapper has paralleled the growth of both our customers and the market segments including LED, tele-com and datacom lasers, VCSELs and detectors," said Raj Mundhe, vice-president of sales, marketing and business development in Accent s Optoelectronics Division. "Our RPM4000 customers are finding that they no longer have to use a random sample measurement approach, but can afford to test every wafer. In an average manufacturing environment, this costs only 16 cents per wafer." Companies scoop top UK business awards Two British companies, Thermo VG Semicon and Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, have been awarded "The Queen s Award for Enterprise". The awards are given on the basis of performance in the categories of international trade, innovation and sustainable development, and represent the highest recognition a UK company can receive for business achievement. MBE system wins for innovation Thermo VG Semicon, a business unit of Thermo Electron (Waltham, MA), received the award in the innovation category for its V100 production MBE reactor. The award recognizes "outstanding and continuous innovation" resulting in a substantial improvement in business performance and commercial success. According to the company, the V100 is the most widely used MBE system worldwide for the production of GaAs-based electronic devices. "Until Thermo VG Semicon introduced the V100 in 1991, MBE was a research-oriented technique capable of manufacturing device wafers in relatively limited quantities," said Richard Syron, chairman and CEO of Thermo Electron. "As a result of the V100, major suppliers in the wireless sector are able to manufacture tens of thousands of device wafers per year." Oxford awarded for overseas trade Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) won in the international trade category, which recognizes achievement in overseas earnings by business units in the UK. OIPT, based in Yatton near Bristol, supplies plasma and ion-beam processing equipment. The company s overseas revenue, including sales to 22 countries in Europe, Asia and the US, now accounts for 85% of its turnover. In total, OIPT s sales reached $50.4 million last year. Nitrogen suitable for MOCVD growth The University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Aeronex (San Diego, CA) have completed a study on the effects of Aeronex s gas purifiers on the quality of MOCVD film growth. Conducted by professors Steven Denbaars and Jim Speck, the year-long project found that in a nitrogen atmosphere, Aeronex s N2 purifier was as effective at removing oxygen- and carbon-bearing species as palladium cells used in a hydrogen ambient. The UCSB study concluded that nitrogen gas has the potential to replace hydrogen in MOCVD growth systems with no loss in purity of the epitaxial film. This could lead to lower material costs and improved safety of the growth process for devices such as InGaN LEDs and GaAs-based FETs and HBTs, says the company. "Challenges in purity and doping control demand cleaner precursor gases," said UCSB s Jim Speck. "We found that Aeronex s purifiers provide a final measure to ensure gas quality and to protect against contamination that may be introduced by the gas delivery system or other process components." Epitaxy equipment sales
  • The National Research Council (Ottawa, ON, Canada) has ordered a Thermo VG Semicon V90 MBE system. Scientists at the Canadian establishment s Institute for Microstructural Sciences will use the reactor to develop compound semiconductor devices targeting optoelectronic and high-speed electronic applications.
  • Mitsubishi Electric has placed a repeat order for a 2400G3 MOCVD system from Aixtron for its Itami plant in Japan. Fitted with an in situ characterization module, the new system will be used by the R&D group in the development of new laser structures.
  • NGK Insulators has ordered an Aixtron AIX 200/4 reactor for its R&D corporate technical center in Nagoya, Japan. The company s Thin Film Application project group will use the AIX 200/4 RF-S reactor for R&D in the field of nitride-based optoelectronic devices.
  • Marconi Optical Components has placed orders for three Aixtron production MOCVD reactors to be used in its optical component manufacturing operations in Northamptonshire, UK.
    Marconi is currently expanding its production capacity and the company will install another AIX 2600G3 (5 6-inch) system for the growth of GaAs devices, and two more AIX 2400 (8 3-inch) reactors for the production of InP-based lasers. All three MOCVD systems are scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2001.
  • Multiplex (South Plainfield, NJ), a manufacturer of pump lasers, tunable lasers, electroabsorption modulators and receivers, is to buy two AIX 2400G3 reactors (35 2-inch or 5 6-inch wafer capacity) from Aixtron. Multiplex will use the new reactors for the growth of InP/GaInAsP devices used in optical components supporting telecommunication applications.
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