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BluGlass Ltd of Sydney, Australia (which was spun off from Macquarie University, New South Wales in mid-2005) says it has succeeded in producing what it claims is the world’s first blue light emission from the uniform deposition of gallium nitride on a 6”-diameter coated glass wafer.

The emission of continuous blue light (which, after conversion by a phosphor coating, yields white light from high-brightness LEDs for the $100bn general lighting market) has not previously been achieved from 6” GaN-on-glass. Last November BluGlass demonstrated scale-up of deposition from 2” to 4” diameter, and this March it demonstrated short-lived blue-light emission from a GaN LED structure fabricated on a commercial glass substrate co-developed with French materials group Saint Gobain (which last October signed an 18 month joint development agreement). Also in March, as well as highly uniform nitride depositon on 4” glass wafers, BluGlass also demonstrated good uniformity over a 6” wafer area. The firm aims to move to 8” and eventually even larger wafers

The latest increase in scale offers the LED market the possibility of additional cost efficiencies, claims CEO David Jordan. Compared to current 2” industry-standard sapphire or silicon carbide substrates for commercial blue LED production, a 6” wafer has nine times the area and can therefore produce nine times the number of LEDs.

In April, BluGlass released an independent study which suggested that using its remote plasma CVD (RPCVD) process for low-temperature deposition of GaN onto 2” glass substrates (rather than conventional MOCVD on sapphire) can cut the cost of manufacturing GaN-based LEDs by 48% at the epiwafer level, which would translate into a 10% cost saving after the LED was manufactured into a simple lighting device. Subsequently, at the beginning of May, BluGlass signed its first design and manufacture agreement with Ireland-based EMF Semiconductor Systems Ltd to provide componentry that will form the backbone of its first commercial-scale prototype GaN-based LED manufacturing system.

See related items:

BluGlass awards first equipment manufacturing contract

GaN-on-glass process could yield 48% savings for LED epi, suggests cost of ownership model

BluGlass touts 6-inch GaN-on-glass technology developments

BluGlass strengthens team in preparation for commercialization

Visit: http://www.bluglass.com.au