8 November 2011

Aixtron launches 19x4-inch CRIUS II-XL MOCVD reactor

After introducing the CRIUS II-L metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system in early July, deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE of Herzogenrath, Germany has now launched the CRIUS II-XL system.

Compared with the CRIUS II-L’s capacity of 69x2-inch or 16x4-inch wafers, the new configuration offers a reactor capacity as high as 19x4-inch, providing what is reckoned to be the world’s highest throughput and productivity. Also, CRIUS II-XL provides what is claimed to be best-in-class cost of ownership and footprint efficiency.

Picture: Aixtron’s new CRIUS II-XL reactor.

CRIUS II-XL builds on the hardware setup of CRIUS II-L. “The only part that needs to be exchanged is the susceptor plate, which means that the larger capacity comes with virtually no extra cost,” says Dr Johannes Lindner, program manager for Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) reactor technology. “This was one of the key design criteria in order to make the transition from CRIUS II-L to CRIUS0 II-XL as smooth as possible,” he adds. “Furthermore, only very minor process tuning factors need to be applied to transfer processes to CRIUS II-XL.”

Aixtron says that this latest version of the CRIUS reactor family is again a result of a detailed analysis of market requirements, in particular with respect to LED manufacturing cost. “There is a strong need for cost-efficient LED manufacturing, and we know how much MOCVD can contribute to this cost reduction,” says VP of marketing Dr Rainer Beccard. “Amongst many parameters, it is the reactor capacity which has the biggest impact on the total cost of ownership. Thus we have decided to design a 19x4-inch setup,” he adds. “This configuration has been extensively tested in Aixtron’s application lab, making sure it provides perfect uniformity and yield together... The system is optimized for wafer sizes between 2-inch and 8-inch; changing from one wafer size to another requires a simple carrier plate exchange without further hardware or process adjustment.”

CRIUS II-XL is the latest addition to the CCS product line, which Aixtron says has proven to provide process stability and robust operation over many years. Standard features of the MOCVD system include an in-situ reactor height adjustment, allowing choice of the optimum reactor geometries for any process regime, and the unique ARGUS in-situ monitoring device.

See: Aixtron Company Profile

Tags: Aixtron MOCVD GaN LEDs

Visit: www.aixtron.com