News

11 May 2010

 

Kopin places multi-year order for Aixtron MOCVD systems

Kopin Corp of Taunton, MA, USA, which makes III-V heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) epiwafers as well as micro-displays for consumer, industrial and military applications, has completed a multi-year purchase and supply agreement with deposition equipment maker Aixtron AG of Aachen-Herzogenrath, Germany for additional high-volume metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactors. The investment supports Kopin’s latest capacity ramp to meet consumer demand for smart phones, e-books and other wireless communication devices.

“These new Aixtron systems are the most advanced multi-wafer machines for HBT manufacturing,” says Kopin’s president & CEO Dr John C.C. Fan. “They will enable us to further increase our 6-inch wafer capacity to meet the rapidly increasing customer demand for more devices, as well as for more complex device structures required for smart phones,” he adds. “For the past few years, we have been using the same type of systems for manufacturing 6-inch wafers. We have gained tremendous know-how that has enabled us not only to increase throughput and yield, but to achieve better and more consistent device performance.... the purchase of the same advanced manufacturing platform will further shorten the time to manufacturing and increase our operational efficiency and consistency,” he believes.

“Kopin has again selected our 7x6-inch ‘Integrated Concept (IC) Platform’ tool,” says Aixtron’s president & CEO Paul Hyland. “Our relationship with Kopin is now in its second decade... our technology and services remain a key part of Kopin’s wafer manufacturing platform,” he adds.

Kopin first installed Aixtron’s 7x6 IC tools in its Taunton, MA manufacturing facility four years ago to fully develop and optimize the tools’ performance with its proprietary HBT, BiFET (bipolar field-effect transistor), pHEMT (pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor) and BiHEMT (bipolar high-electron-mobility transistor) manufacturing processes. The first two systems of the new multi-year order will be installed at Kopin Taiwan Corp (KTC) in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan by the end of this year. Kopin expanded its investment in KTC in August 2009, and has since been expanding capacity and capability there.

“Over the past two years, we have executed our plan to support our customers’ conversion to 6-inch wafers from 4-inch wafers, expanded our III-V product offerings to pHEMT and BiHEMT, and successfully achieved a 50% increase in overall manufacturing capacity,” says Daily Hill, Kopin’s senior VP & general manager of the III-V Group. “This newest tool order with Aixtron starts our next plan for an additional 50% capacity expansion in our facilities in the US and Taiwan,” he adds.

See: Aixtron Company Profile

Search: Kopin Aixtron MOCVD HBT BiFET pHEMT BiHEMT

Visit: www.kopin.com

Visit: www.aixtron.com