Dec 15 2005
AIXTRON AG, a leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, today announced the receipt of a purchase order for a Thomas Swan 19x2" Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxy reactor from Rainbow Optoelectronics Material Shanghai Co. Ltd., China.
The 19x2’’ CCS system will complement Rainbow’s earlier purchases such as the AIX 2600G3HT in a 24x2" configuration, and will also be used for the production of high-brightness blue LEDs. It makes Rainbow one of the largest GaN LED capacity facilities in China.
Mr. Hun-Huang Liu, General Manager at Rainbow Optoelectronics Material Shanghai Co. Ltd., adds: "We already know AIXTRON’s MOCVD systems from experience and have effectively used the unique features of this technology in the development of devices. Also, the highly satisfactory local support helps us rapidly implement development cycles and maintain good cost control. Our strategic plan now requires us to add the Close-Coupled Showerhead technology to our MOCVD capabilities. We believe that this reactor technology has significant advantages over other vertical reactors in terms of excellent stability and uniformity. It will enable us to qualify and introduce very competitive state-of-the-art GaN based LEDs.”
Dr. Bernd Schulte, Executive Vice President of AIXTRON comments: "China is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most important manufacturing regions for compound semiconductor devices and high brightness LEDs in particular. This new order will provide Rainbow with a boost in both technology and capacity for GaN LED production. We are very pleased that Rainbow once again chose an AIXTRON system. It provides further proof of the superior capability of our vertical reactor CCS concept in the area of advanced optoelectronic structures which are needed in GaN-based solid state lighting."
Rainbow Optoelectronics Material Shanghai Co. Ltd., previously operated under its former Chinese name LanBao Photoelectric Material Co., Ltd. LanBao entered the blue/green LED business just over two years ago. These were the first mass production MOCVD reactors for GaN-based LED manufacturing in mainland China. It was able to quickly develop a commercially competitive product with the AIX 2400G3 HT MOCVD reactor under mass production conditions thanks to support from the AIXTRON AG Shanghai Branch Office, the local Service representation of AIXTRON’s Global Service Operations (GSO).
With the inherent technological advantages over competing technologies, the Close Coupled Showerhead Technology provides the lowest cost per wafer in the industry. It combines the highest levels of process stability and performance with the easy handling attributable to the unique CCS principle. Fully configured as a GaN HB-LED production tool, the CCS system provides exceptional uniformity of thickness, doping, and composition within epitaxial layers. Reactors with capacities of up to 19x2” have established their leading role in the LED industry. LED manufacturers in Taiwan, USA, South Korea and Japan are successfully using these reactors for the epi-growth of green, blue, and UV LED structures.