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News Article

New Wave awarded sapphire substrate patent

New Wave Research, a manufacturer of laser-based systems for microelectronics and analytical applications based in Fremont, CA, has been awarded United States patent number 6,580,054 for its method of scribing sapphire substrates.
The patent covers scribing sapphire substrates using solid-state UV lasers. More than 50 items are claimed, including all the hardware configurations, processes and parameters used in the company’s AccuScribe sapphire wafer scribing systems. These items include wavelength, repetition rate, energy density, spot size, pulse duration, movable X-Y stages and edge detection.

“Our process reduces the overall cost of LED manufacturing by decreasing the number of consumables and improving yield. And with the approval of this patent, this method is now unique to New Wave Research,” said May Su, New Wave Research s VP of marketing.

More than 30 units of the AccuScribe wafer scribing system have been installed worldwide. New Wave Research claims that the system reduces LED production costs by lowering cost of ownership by 25-50% compared to scribing systems that use diamond scribes and saws.

The reduction in scribe cost can be attributed to a number of factors. Primarily, while the hardness of sapphire causes diamond scribe tips to quickly degrade and demand constant maintenance, AccuScribe units require very little maintenance. In addition, the accuracy and repeatability inherent in laser processing produces a consistently higher yield.

New Wave Research says that other laser-based sapphire scribing methods have higher costs principally due to the use of excimer lasers, which require consumable gases and are substantially more expensive to operate and maintain than solid-state lasers.

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