Company Profile: IQE plc

IQE plc is this year celebrating its twentieth anniversary as a leading global supplier of advanced semiconductor wafers with products that cover a diverse range of applications. The Company is able to provide a 'one stop shop' for the wafer needs of the world's leading compound semiconductor manufacturers, who in turn use these wafers to make the chips which form the key components of virtually every high technology system. IQE has particular focus on the growing global wireless sector for applications including; mobile handsets, wireless infrastructure, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, base stations, GPS and satellite communications; as well as for the optical communication sector including; optical storage (CD, DVD), laser optical mice, laser printers & photocopiers, thermal imagers, leading-edge medical products, bar-coding, high efficiency LEDs and advanced solar cells.

The manufacturers of these chips are increasingly seeking to outsource wafer production to specialist foundries such as IQE in order to reduce overall wafer costs and accelerate time to market. IQE is unique in being able to supply wafers using all of the leading crystal growth technology platforms including Metal Organic Vapour Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) and Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and the Group is able to leverage its global purchasing volumes to reduce the cost of raw materials.

IQE also provides bespoke R&D services to deliver customized materials for specific applications and offers specialist technical staff to manufacture to specification either at its own facilities or on the customer's own sites. This is backed by a strategy of duplicating each key product processes over multiple sites to assure customers of security of supply as well as provide compelling customer benefits in terms of flexibility and predictability of cost, thereby significantly reducing operating risk.

IQE’s product range is based on the use of III-V Compound Semiconductors and silicon epitaxy and offers all three key platforms for producing atomically engineered epitaxial materials: Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition (MOCVD) and Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE).

IQE produces the most diverse product range of any independent global wafer supplier. Products include HBTs, pHEMTs, BiFETs and GaN HEMTs for RF and wireless applications, lasers, VCSELs, APDs and PiN detectors for optoelectronic applications as well as GaAs based materials for Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) applications. The Group also provides silicon epitaxy services for a diverse range of electronic and MEMS applications.

IQE operates six manufacturing facilities; two in Cardiff and one in Milton Keynes in the UK; two more in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Somerset, New Jersey in the USA; and one in Singapore. The Group also has 11 sales offices located in major economic centres worldwide.