Technical Insight
IQE and QinetiQ team up in joint venture (Materials and Equipment)
Two UK companies, IQE and QinetiQ, are forming a joint venture to undertake research and development, and assess materials for themselves and their customers. Epiwafer and substrate vendor IQE is based in Cardiff, while QinetiQ operates from a number of sites across the UK. QinetiQ was formerly the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and has an established compound semiconductor works in Malvern. The venture, based on epitaxial-growth technology, will initially operate from QinetiQ s Malvern facility. It is expected to have eight reactors dedicated to III-Vs and two for silicon, SiGe and SiC. Both companies bring intellectual property and equipment to the table, and IQE will use its established global sales and marketing operations to promote the venture s services. "This joint venture consolidates the positions of both IQE and QinetiQ within the industry, and allows IQE to focus on volume production while offering customers access to a truly world-class research and development center," said Steve Byars, managing director of IQE Europe. QinetiQ was set up in July this year when DERA was split into two parts. DERA performed the bulk of the non-nuclear research for the UK s Ministry of Defence (MoD). The split saw 75% of DERA become a government-owned public company called QinetiQ, with the remaining 25% staying within the MoD as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). Shares in QinetiQ are likely to be offered on the London Stock Exchange in early 2002. QinetiQ s compound history QinetiQ s Malvern site has a long history in compound semiconductor materials and micro- and optoelectronics R&D, as well as silicon and SiGe. The site carried out much of the early development in using the Czochralski method to grow bulk compound semiconductor crystals, as was the case with device-quality GaAs grown by MOVPE. The first GaAs FETs from this material were reported by a Malvern team in 1975. Its current activity covers a broad range of III-V and II-VI device technologies, including InSb-based transistors, magnetic-field sensors, infrared emitters and detectors, and HgCdTe and InSb infrared focal plane arrays (IRFPAs) (see and ). The military heritage of the site has also seen the growth of activity in GaAs-based millimeter-wave and microwave devices, and the development of an established program for semiconductors based on III-nitrides for high-power electronics. The concept of negative luminescence was pioneered at the Malvern site. This effectively allows an InSb-based device to switch its background infrared emission off, making it appear cold. Negative luminescence devices have found application as infrared flux references for non-uniformity correction in IRFPAs. QinetiQ was the first to fabricate mid-IR focal-plane arrays from MBE-grown InSb. Their structure allows operation above 77 K, and incorporates an InSb negative luminescence source for correcting array non-uniformity. Arrays up to 1024 768 pixels in size have been demonstrated. The development of emitter and detector technologies in the mid-infrared has spurred activity in gas sensors, as many gases of interest have absorption lines in the mid-IR. The epitaxy of dilute nitride alloys is another technology that enables emission and detection in the infrared. Chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) is being used to grow arsenide nitrides for 13001550 nm emitter applications, and nitrogen plasma MBE is being used for antimonide nitrides for long-wavelength infrared detector applications. More recent activity targeting fiber-optic communications includes developing GaAs 40 Gbit/s optical modulators for future optical networks. GaAs-based circuit and sub-system design focuses on highly integrated millimeter- and microwave multi-function circuits, including MMIC receiver and transmitter front ends for 4050 GHz operations, and 1218 GHz single-chip transceivers. Circuits are fabricated through partnerships with commercial foundries. GaAs has also found a place in the millimeter-wave imaging systems being developed by QinetiQ. These systems receive at 35 or 94 GHz and use GaAs or InP MMICs as the receiver elements. One of the applications of millimeter-wave imaging is security, as passive imaging through clothing can reveal hidden weapons.
