SOUTH-KOREA SELECTS AIXTRON

[BIZ/HIGH-TECH: Aachen, September 29]
AIXTRON AG, the Aachen-based provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, has announced a number of system sales to South Korea. The systems will be installed to increase the manufacturing capacities for High Brightness LEDs. Recently, South-Korean LED chip manufacturers have increased their activities in the market place and have gained market share, especially for high end products.

One MOCVD system, a repeat order for an AIX 2600G3HT model, will be shipped to Samsung Electro Mechanics, a company located in Suwon-City (“Samsung City”), near Seoul. Samsung is one of the world’s most successful mobile phone manufacturers and also delivers many sub-assemblies for mobile phones, including LED flashlights and keypad LEDs to other companies.

Additionally, an order was placed by the newly established Korea Photonics Technology Institute (KOPTI), located at the City of Gwangju. The city in the southern part of the country is embarking upon a “LED Valley” project that aims to make it one of the most innovative LED production powerhouses in the world. The “LED Valley” project is part of the second phase of Gwangju’s ambitious Photonics 2010 plan that aspires to establish the city as one of the world’s top 5 photonics clusters by 2010.

One system ordered, the Thomas Swan Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) reactor (19x2 inch), will be used for the development and the production of GaN LEDs. The other system ordered, an AIX 2600G3 with a reactor capacity for 18x3 inch wafers, is already the second AIXTRON system to be established at KOPTI. It will be utilized for the development and manufacture of GaAs based UHB-LEDs.

On top of this, one of the most successful start-up companies in South Korea, LED wafer and chip supplier EpiValley Co Ltd. (near Seoul) has placed a repeat order for two more Thomas Swan CCS reactors (each with 19x2inch wafer capacity) to match their production capacities to current demands. EpiValley supplies its high quality LED chips and wafers to numerous fast-growing LED chipmakers in Korea and Taiwan.
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