Rubicon Technology ships 200,000th large diameter sapphire wafer

BENSENVILLE, USA: Rubicon Technology Inc., a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, RFIC, Semiconductor, and Optical industries, has shipped a total of 200,000 six-inch sapphire wafers to the LED manufacturing industry. Sapphire, the base material used for the majority of LEDs, is used in consumer products such as LED-based lighting, HDTVs, laptops, netbooks, smart phones and tablets, and automotive lighting.

Rubicon was instrumental in the development of large diameter sapphire wafers for use in the RFIC market and further developed the process to serve other markets requiring large diameter sapphire wafers, such as LED lighting and other semiconductor applications.

“I believe Rubicon has significantly more experience in producing large diameter sapphire wafers than any of our competitors,” explains Raja Parvez, Rubicon president and CEO. “LED manufacturers understand that migration to a large diameter sapphire wafer platform offers an opportunity to achieve production and cost efficiencies. This is increasingly important as LED manufacturers seek to reduce costs throughout the LED manufacturing process to help the industry lower prices of LED-based lighting and encourage adoption worldwide.”

Bringing down the price of LEDs is a key element in supporting the worldwide commercial adoption of solid state lighting based on LEDs as a light source. Government entities around the world including Australia, Canada and the United States have introduced legislation to require energy efficient lighting. The transition to larger diameter wafers in LED production has started. Several key LED chip manufacturers have announced plans to migrate to and/or test large diameter wafers in 2011/2012.

“There is significant large diameter wafer activity among LED manufacturers with nearly a half dozen working with six-inch in some way,” said Dr. Philippe Roussel, LED senior project manager, Yole Développement. “By 2016, our research projects that large diameter wafers measuring six inches and greater will capture more than 50 percent of the market.”

According to market research firm DisplaySearch, TV applications currently dominate the LED market, but LED lighting will capture the lead by 2014. The firm said that LED lighting penetration rate in 2010 was 1.4 percent, and is forecast to reach 9.6 percent in 2014 with the growth due to government incentive programs, and growth in commercial applications and consumer adoption worldwide.