Rubicon marks first anniversary of Batavia sapphire growth facility

BENSENVILLE, USA: Rubicon Technology Inc., a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, RFIC, semiconductor, and optical industries, marks the first anniversary of the company’s next-generation sapphire crystal growth facility, located in Batavia, IL.

The 135,000 sq. ft. facility is used for the production of sapphire crystals which are further processed into sapphire ingots and large diameter sapphire wafers used in products such as LED-based lighting, HDTVs, laptops, netbooks, smart phones and tablets, and automotive lighting.

As a vertically integrated supplier, Rubicon grows large sapphire crystals at the Batavia facility from raw materials in custom-built, proprietary furnaces replicating the organic sapphire creation process found in nature. The company completes the process to make large diameter wafers in their Penang, Malaysia cutting and polishing facility.

“Rubicon’s proprietary crystal growth technology, as exemplified by our Batavia plant, has been refined over the past 11 years to provide consistently high yield and the highest quality sapphire for our customers,” said Raja Parvez, Rubicon president and CEO. “Rubicon’s Batavia plant is the cornerstone of our market leadership in providing large-diameter sapphire wafers to the LED industry. Rubicon offers LED manufacturers the most reliable supply of high quality, high yield, large diameter sapphire wafers which is important to supporting the adoption of LED-based general lighting worldwide.”

To date, Rubicon has shipped more than 200,000 six-inch sapphire wafers to the LED manufacturing and RFIC industries. The transition to larger diameter wafers in LED production has started at the LED manufacturing level. Several key LED chip manufacturers have announced plans to migrate to and/or test large diameter wafers in 2011/2012. The process and cost efficiencies brought by large diameter sapphire wafers are instrumental to driving prices down in the LED industry.

Bringing down the overall price of LEDs is a key element in supporting the worldwide commercial adoption of solid state lighting based on LEDs as a light source. According to market research firm DisplaySearch, the total average LED penetration in lighting was 1.4 percent in 2010 and is forecast to reach 9.3 percent in 2014. Government entities around the world including China, European Union, Australia, Canada and the United States have introduced legislation to require energy efficient lighting.