LED chip companies impressed with Trinity sapphire
Trinity Material and ARC Energy have announced that sapphire grown using ARC Energy’s Controlled Heat Extraction System (CHES) furnaces has been certified for high quality LED chip production at two leading LED chip companies. Trinity Material in China and ARC Energy have united to use ARC Energy’s CHES furnaces for sapphire production. Sapphire boules are grown on c-axis by ARC Energy’s CHES method compared to conventional processes where a-axis boules are grown and c-axis wafers are extracted. “LED chip qualification results prove that CHES wafers perform as well as, or better than sapphire grown by the a-axis growth process, without any colour problems at the boule or wafer levels. LED chips manufactured on CHES wafers show a significant increase in light output when compared to devices grown using wafers from conventionala-axis-grown boules,” says Champion Yi, chief operating officer for Trinity Material. Trinity Material and ARC Energy are paving the way for new industry expectations and opportunities based on c-axis growth orientation for LED manufacturing. Trinity Material is successfully ramping up to produce very high volumes of sapphire crystals to meet the growing demand for large diameter sapphire wafers in the LED market. “Trinity Material is excited to be a pioneer in China for mass production of CHES sapphire for the LED market,” says Jamin Sheng, chief executive officer for Trinity Material. “We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with ARC Energy, and to utilising ARC Energy’s leading edge CHES furnaces and our strong production capabilities to ramp up production to high volumes so that we can become a worldwide leader in large diameter sapphire.” ARC Energy’s proprietary and fully automated CHES technology produces c-axis boules that are the optimum orientation for LED applications and, the firm says when compared with conventional a-axis technologies, lead to higher material utilisation and lower overall costs for large diameter sapphire production. “Our unique and flexible c-axis CHES furnaces allow Trinity Material to serve the rapidly expanding demand for large diameter sapphire substrates, ranging from four inches to eight inches. We are pleased to partner with Trinity Material to help them expand their business in the LED marketplace,” adds Rick Schwerdtfeger, co-founder and chief technology officer for ARC Energy.
