News Article
IQE launches new silicon processes
The new processes have the funding assistance from the Welsh Assembly Government.
IQE, a supplier of advanced semiconductor wafer products and wafer services to the semiconductor industry, is pleased to announce that its Cardiff based silicon operation has successfully added two major new technologies to its portfolio of manufacturing processes.
The new processes were developed with funding assistance from the Welsh Assembly Government in line with their SMART development programmes and are aimed at improving the speed and power consumption of silicon chips by using materials such as strained silicon and sapphire for future generations of high speed applications including the RF wireless and broadband markets. The radiation hard attributes of these advanced materials also lend themselves to a wide range of aerospace applications. Future developments could also see these products being used as advanced microcontrollers for a host of industrial, consumer and automotive devices.
Moz Fisher, Operations Manager of Cardiff based IQE Silicon said: "One of these new processes has already been fully qualified with a key customer and will go into production immediately. The second process requires some significant product re-engineering by the customer which will extend the qualification period but is expected to be in volume production in the next two years."
IQE's silicon epitaxy operation was established in Cardiff, Wales in 2000 and provides its expertise and world leading technology to semiconductor chip manufacturers worldwide. The facility manufactures a wide range of silicon based products including buried layer epitaxy, strained silicon on SOI and sapphire, multilayer and selective epitaxy as well as germanium and SiGe epitaxy.
The business supports the new era of "asset-lite" wafer-fabs by enabling customers to increase production capacity as required, allowing them to quickly respond to increased demand for their products by acting as an extension of their own in-house capabilities.
The new processes were developed with funding assistance from the Welsh Assembly Government in line with their SMART development programmes and are aimed at improving the speed and power consumption of silicon chips by using materials such as strained silicon and sapphire for future generations of high speed applications including the RF wireless and broadband markets. The radiation hard attributes of these advanced materials also lend themselves to a wide range of aerospace applications. Future developments could also see these products being used as advanced microcontrollers for a host of industrial, consumer and automotive devices.
Moz Fisher, Operations Manager of Cardiff based IQE Silicon said: "One of these new processes has already been fully qualified with a key customer and will go into production immediately. The second process requires some significant product re-engineering by the customer which will extend the qualification period but is expected to be in volume production in the next two years."
IQE's silicon epitaxy operation was established in Cardiff, Wales in 2000 and provides its expertise and world leading technology to semiconductor chip manufacturers worldwide. The facility manufactures a wide range of silicon based products including buried layer epitaxy, strained silicon on SOI and sapphire, multilayer and selective epitaxy as well as germanium and SiGe epitaxy.
The business supports the new era of "asset-lite" wafer-fabs by enabling customers to increase production capacity as required, allowing them to quickly respond to increased demand for their products by acting as an extension of their own in-house capabilities.
