Technical Insight
UEC expands LED capacity, introduces new epiwafers (Asia News)
United Epitaxy Company (UEC) has developed a new range of epiwafers for optical communication applications, and intends to start mass production in July 2001. The products are AlGaAs VCSEL epiwafers, along with 1310 nm LED and FabryPerot (FP) laser diode epiwafers. The AlGaAs VCSEL epiwafers cover the 780 to 850 nm range and are available with oxide-confined or ion-implant structures. 850 nm oxide-confined VCSELs fabricated using UEC s epiwafers have a 10 m aperture, 1 mA threshold current, 0.3 W/A slope efficiency and 35 resistance. 1310 nm FP lasers with 3 m stripe width and 30 m cavity length have also been fabricated. These exhibit a typical threshold current of 12 mA, a slope efficiency of 0.37 W/A and a characteristic temperature of over 85C. Third LED plant to open soon In further news, UEC expects that its third plant, located in the Tainan science-based industrial park in the south of Taiwan, will open shortly. The facility will be used for the volume production of ultra high brightness (UHB) AlInGaP LED chips. The company expects that the significant improvements it has made to high-volume epitaxy will help reduce production costs to NT$0.10.2 per chip. In comparison, production costs for conventional LEDs are below NT$0.1 (0.3 cents). UEC expects UHB LEDs to replace conventional LEDs as costs fall and high-volume markets such as decorative lighting and outdoor displays continue to grow. The company aims to have a significant share of this market, which it expects to reach 2.5 billion chips by 2005.
