Deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE of Herzogenrath, near Aachen, Germany has received an order for an AIX G5+ C Planetary Reactor metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system from UK-based Plessey Semiconductors to boost its manufacturing capability for gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers targeting next-generation micro-LED applications.
With an automatic cassette-to-cassette (C2C) wafer transfer module, the new reactor will be installed and operational during first-quarter 2019 at Plessey’s 270,000ft2 fabrication facility in Plymouth, UK. The AIX G5+ C MOCVD system has two separate chamber set-up options, which enables configurations of 8x6-inch or 5x8-inch GaN-on-Si wafers to be automatically loaded and removed from the system in an enclosed cassette environment. The system will be an addition to the firm’s existing MOCVD reactors, also supplied by Aixtron, which provide configurations of 7x6-inch or 3x8-inch with manual loading.
Productivity is further enhanced by the new reactor’s automated self-cleaning technology, which helps to deliver a very low level of wafer defects by ensuring that the reactor is clean on every run, significantly reducing downtime for maintenance. The new equipment also provides faster ramp and cool down, along with a high susceptor unload temperature to reduce the recipe time.
The AIX G5+ C reactor will support Plessey’s extensive production roadmap to increase R&D capacity of its monolithic micro-LEDs based on its proprietary GaN-on-Si technology. Plessey’s micro-LEDs are said to offer extremely low power consumption, high brightness and very high pixel density, creating the potential for disruption in many existing application areas that use conventional display technologies such as LCD and OLED.
Plessey is developing illuminators for display engines and full-field emissive micro-LED displays. The complex devices combine very high-density RGB pixel arrays with high-performance CMOS backplanes to produce very high-brightness, low-power and high-frame-rate image sources for head-mounted displays, and wearable electronics devices for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems.
“Our continued and valuable relationship with Aixtron allows Plessey to rapidly bring to market its monolithic micro-LEDs,” says Plessey’s chief operating officer Mike Snaith. “To help us achieve this, our latest acquisition of Aixtron’s AIX G5+ C planetary system combines outstanding on-wafer uniformity and run-to-run performance at the lowest cost of ownership – aspects that are critical for efficient high-volume GaN-on-Si micro-LED displays,” he comments.
“The AIX G5+ C will support Plessey’s requirements in the best way possible to address the most stringent requirements for micro-LED production,” believes Dr Frank Schulte, VP of Aixtron Europe. “While offering more productive configurations, the tool meets the toughest requirements from the silicon industry in terms of uniformity and particles.”
Addressing all of the challenges involved in manufacturing micro-LEDs, including high-volume and cost-effective production capability, Plessey says that it is actively engaging with potential customers to use its production-ready micro-LED technology platform.
