Azzurro Semiconductor AG’s Sales & Marketing vice president Erwin Ysewijn told to Digitimes that, the company has turned out sample 8-inch Ga-on-Si LED epitaxial wafers and plans to begin volume production as soon as the end of Q2 of 2013.
According to Ysewijn , Azzurro has spent about one year in preparation for volume production. LED makers can either procure Azzurro-made finished GaN-on-Si LED epitaxial wafers for LED chips, or procure Si-substrate wafers with GaN films for LED epitaxial wafers.
LED chips made from GaN-on-Si epitaxial wafers have a 5% lower luminous efficiency than LED chips made from sapphire wafers, however, the unit price of ERU0.20/(US$0.27) square cm for the former is lower than that of EUR0.30 for the latter, Ysewijn pointed out.
Currently, almost all LED chip makers use sapphire wafers, while few of them are willing to change production equipment to adopt GaN-on-Si epitaxial wafers. However, he emphasized that GaN-on-Si technology is a long-term development for large-size LED epitaxial wafers.
