Epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK says that during March it received record volume purchase orders worth just over $3m (to be delivered over the next 12 months) for its indium antimonide (InSb) and gallium antimonide (GaSb) substrate materials.
The purchase orders from three long-term customers of IQE's Infrared business unit are for various specifications of InSb and GaSb substrate materials, including large-diameter products that are used to fabricate infrared detector products. InSb and GaSb are key materials for a wide range of infrared detector technologies in consumer, defence, security, medical and industrial imaging applications.
IQE Infrared reckons it is uniquely positioned as a global supply of antimonide materials to the IR detector industry, with IQE's US (Galaxy Compound Semiconductors) and UK (Wafer Technology) operations providing a secure dual source of 2-5" InSb and GaSb wafers. IQE claims that it has the largest antimonide wafer production capacity in the industry, using multiple production tools (pullers), volume double-side polishing platforms and state-of-the art product metrology.
The new orders "reflect the high quality of the antimonide substrate products that we supply as well as the confidence that our customers have in Galaxy Compound Semiconductors and Wafer Technology to support their longer-term requirements for a wide range of InSb and GaSb substrate materials up to 5" in diameter," says Dr Mark Furlong, VP of IQE's Infrared business unit.
IQE's Infrared division presents invited papers at SPIE DCS
At the SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing conference (DCS 2016) in Baltimore, MD USA (17-21 April), IQE is presenting two invited papers on recent key developments and commercialization of advanced infrared materials:
Invited paper 1: 'Bulk Growth and Surface Characterization of Epitaxy Ready Cadmium Zinc Telluride substrates for use in IR imaging applications', covering new product development in the area of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) IR substrate technology through a partnership between IQE's US substrate manufacturing subsidiary Galaxy Compound Semiconductors and Redlen Technologies (www.redlen.com) of Victoria, BC, Canada, a leader in the manufacture of CZT-based radiation detectors. Invited paper 2: 'A study of the preparation of epitaxy-ready polished surfaces of (100) Gallium Antimonide substrates demonstrating ultra-low surface defects for MBE growth'.
