AXT, Inc., a manufacturer of compound semiconductor substrate wafers, has developed and shipped its first 8-inch diameter gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates to a major customer. The 8-inch GaAs substrates, which are silicon doped, n-type substrates, demonstrate low etch pit densities (EPD) and low levels of slip lines.
Morris Young, the chief executive officer said that this is a significant achievement and an important milestone for AXT. Every step up in diameter size comes with a major increase in the technical challenge of producing it. Morris said that AXT has always been a pioneer in this area, with the entrepreneurial spirit to drive innovation to unlock the potential for new applications. Further, the material quality of their first wafers demonstrates their commitment to excellence and the differentiation of our VGF crystal growth process. AXT is pleased to be able to offer their customers meaningful advantages in scalability, low stress and low defect rates.
AXT has received significant interest from several customers due to the market development of high-volume applications, including VCSELs for 3D sensors and LiDAR, as well as micro-LEDs for displays. AXT predicts a broader scaling of the demand for 8-inch GaAs wafers when these applications are adopted.
Young went on to say that although AXT still has development work to undertake on this project, their new world-class manufacturing facilities in Dingxing and Kazuo (China) can enable the commercial viability of 8-inch gallium arsenide wafers. Both of AXT’s new facilities have been purposefully designed and built for high-volume manufacturing of compound semiconductor substrate wafers, utilizing advanced equipment and improved automation. Further, manufacturing volume expansion was taken into account when designing the new facilities and they believe they have a short path to develop and launch a high-volume manufacturing line for 8-inch GaAs substrates.
