At the SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing 2013 infrared materials conference in Baltimore, MD, USA (30 April to 2 May), Galaxy Compound Semiconductors Inc of Spokane,WA, USA, a subsidiary of epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK that produces materials for infrared sensing in defense and commercial applications, has announced enhanced measurement capabilities through the installation of the Tropel FM200 Flatmaster Surface Form Analysis System (made by Corning) for the measurement of substrate flatness.
The new characterization tool is configured to measure substrates up to 8" (200mm) in diameter and will be used to offer customers improved materials characterization to meet the the growing demand for large-diameter indium antimonide (InSb) and gallium antimonide (GaSb) products engineered for specific device-size applications. The new equipment has been installed and commissioned within the cleanroom polishing area at the firm's manufacturing facility in Spokane. The non-contact, high-throughput measurement capabilities of the FM200 will also support the rapid collation of substrate characterization data processed in real time for customer review.
"The FM 200 enables us to provide SEMI-standard, high-resolution flatness maps to all of our InSb and GaSb customers," says Patrick Flint, Galaxy's director of technology and business development. "The powerful data analysis capabilities of Tropel's Flatmaster system is proving to be very valuable and allows us to manufacture substrates with custom flatness profiles that are delivering benefits to our customer's yield improvement programs," he adds.
