II-VI and SET enter epiwafer marketing deal
The two companies will jointly market their products in the United States, Japan, and Germany using II-VI’s marketing and distribution infrastructure. The initial product portfolio includes quaternary AlInGaN-based 2- and 3-inch diameter epitaxial wafers on 6H-SiC substrates and also 2-, 3- and 4-inch diameter epitaxial wafers on sapphire substrates.
“This distributorship agreement with a large materials manufacturer such as II-VI gives our company an opportunity to reach out to overseas markets through a well-established marketing and sales infrastructure in a very cost efficient way”, says Remis Gaska, president and CEO of SET. “It is an integral part of our strategy to become a leading source of III-nitride epitaxial wafer technology on silicon carbide substrates.”
The two companies have successfully combined semi-insulating 6H-SiC substrate production capabilities at II-VI with epitaxial material growth technology developed at SET.
The SET/II-VI team is sampling 2- and 3-inch diameter AlInGaN/GaN HFET wafers for fabrication of ultra-high power transistors, which are key building blocks for microwave power amplifiers (MPAs). MPAs amplify radio-frequency signals and are central pieces in transmit/receive modules of both military and commercial radars and communications systems, including networks of base stations for wireless communications (cell phones and internet).
The development of this technology has been strongly supported by the US government. II-VI has received significant funding from Title III, AFRL and Navy/ONR, focused on process improvement and manufacturing scale-up. In 2003 alone, SET received seven Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from MDA and DARPA to develop and commercialize III-Nitride based materials and device technology.
