Epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK has received a new purchase order for indium phosphide (InP) materials worth $3.25m from a leading global substrate manufacturer.
Produced by IQE’s Wafer Technology division based in Milton Keynes, UK, InP crystal is the source material for the manufacture of InP wafers used in the production of high-performance photonic components for a wide range of applications in infrared sensing, communications and gesture recognition applications.
Demand for photonics products is continuing to grow as new and emerging technologies increasingly rely on the properties of light for a growing range of technological applications, notes IQE. InP is the material of choice due to its advantageous photonic properties, particularly in the short-wavelength infrared (IR) range commonly used for sensing applications as well as high-speed optical communications, high-definition night vision and gesture recognition, adds the firm.
”We are very pleased to receive this order from a long-term customer of our InP products and the scale of this commitment reflects our status in the semiconductor industry for the supply of a diverse range of semiconductor materials in addition to substrates and epiwafers,” says IQE’s CEO & president Dr Drew Nelson.
“We continue to see growing demand for products with optoelectronic properties, and it is apt that IQE’s first significant order of the year should relate to photonics products,” Nelson adds. ”This order underlines the importance of the photonic industry sector over the coming years and decades, as recognised by 2015 being designated the International Year of Light.”
