GT Advanced Technologies Inc of Nashua, NH, USA (a provider of polysilicon production technology as well as sapphire and silicon crystal growth systems and materials for the solar, LED and electronics markets) has acquired exclusive rights from Kyma Technologies Inc of Raleigh, NC, USA for its plasma vapor deposition (PVD) process technology and know-how.
The PVD of nano-columns (PVDNC) technology developed by Kyma deposits a high-quality growth initiation layer of aluminium nitride (AlN) on wafers prior to gallium nitride (GaN) deposition. GT plans to commercialize a PVD tool that will complement its hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) system, which is currently in development (after in February 2013 entering development and licensing agreements with Soitec of Bernin, France to develop, manufacture and commercialize a high-volume, multi-wafer HVPE system). The combined offering is aimed to provide LED makers with a higher-throughput, lower-cost solution to produce GaN templates on patterned or planar wafers. GT already has a high-volume prototype tool incorporating Kyma’s PVDNC technology and expects to offer a production-ready tool in first-half 2015.
“Kyma’s innovative ‘nano-columnar’ PVDNC technology adds an important component to our expanding LED product base,” says president & CEO Tom Gutierrez. “Our goal is to offer a range of solutions that improve the quality and lower the cost of LED manufacturing. The combination of GT’s PVD AlN tool, coupled with the HVPE system we are developing, is expected to offer LED manufacturers a lower-cost solution to producing epi-ready wafers compared with today’s current manufacturing techniques,” he adds.
“Through years of innovation and production of AlN templates, we are convinced of the real and demonstrated benefits of nano-columnar AlN films to the LED industry,” comments Kyma’s president & CEO Keith Evans.
Currently, GaN deposition on epiwafers is done in slower and more expensive metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) tools, says GT. By using the combined PVD and HVPE processes to create low-cost GaN templates, LED makers will be able to increase the throughput of their existing production lines and lower their capital expenditures because they will need fewer MOCVD tools, reckons the firm.
