News: Suppliers
28 June 2022
Umicore develops ultra-low-resistivity 8” n-type germanium wafers
Germanium product and materials solutions supplier Umicore Electro-Optic Materials (EOM) has announced the development of ultra-low (<1mΩ.cm) 6” and 8” germanium wafers for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs).
As a key component in telecom and 3D sensor systems, the applications of VCSELs range from data centers to smartphone security and light detection & ranging (LiDAR) sensors for autonomous vehicles (AVs).
Umicore says that, due to its latest breakthrough, VCSELs on the firm’s 6” or 8” wafers will have superior electrical performance on top of the already proven better optical performance compared with gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers traditionally used for this application.
“We are seeing growing interest in our germanium wafers for photonic applications,” notes Bendix De Meulemeester, director marketing & business development. “Thanks to the Umicore material expertise and know-how, our team has been able to develop an innovative germanium crystal technology that achieves below 1mΩ.cm resistivity in n-type germanium wafers without affecting the excellent crystal quality such as zero dislocations and high doping uniformity,” he adds. “With the development of the first 6” VCSEL Ge wafer in 2020 and the first 8” VCSEL Ge wafer in 2021, this is the third innovation of our germanium R&D team in relatively short time, a testament of our commitment to the photonic industry.”
Umicore qualifying 6” germanium wafers for VCSEL applications
