Bluglass installs commercial-scale semiconductor equipment at Silverwater plant






Semiconductor technology developer Bluglass has completed the installation of its largest-ever remote plasma vapour deposition (RPCVD) manufacturing system (main picture) at its Silverwater plant in Sydney.

The commercial-scale system, known as BLG-500, is capable of creating 6×6 semiconductor wafers or 42 two inch wafers for the production of laser diodes, LED and microLED industries.

It grows wafers of advanced materials such as gallium nitride (GnN) and indium gallium nitride (InGaN) used to produce high-efficiency devices for lighting, displays, virtual reality systems, and industrial cutting and welding.

Bluglass has been scaling up manufacturing systems utilising its RPCVD technologies which offer semiconductor manufacturers advantages because of their low temperature operations.

Managing director Giles Bourne said: “The BLG-500 is the culmination of an enormous two-year design and build project to transform our unique R&D scale technology to one with commercial manufacturing capability.

“This step is critical to the future success of the company.

“The 500 is not an incremental next generation of our RPCVD platform, it is instead a radically re-engineered design to deliver ultra-precision uniformity and deposition quality at commercial scale.”

The BLG-500’s large scale will allow Bluglass to significantly increase its Sydney semiconductor foundry output and allow performance testing and optimising of the manufacturing system.

The new deposition platform was retrofitted onto a modern semiconductor manufacturing platform, the AIXTRON 2800 G4 (below) produced by semiconductor equipment leader AIXTRON SE.

AIXTRON SE is a German company which specialises in manufacturing metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) equipment for clients in the semiconductor industry.

The integration of the Bluglass platform into its machines opens up a potential global market for the Australian company.

Bourne said: “I would like to acknowledge the incredible work and dedication of the BluGlass team, specialist consultants and the cooperative support of AIXTRON, all of whom have helped deliver this important milestone.”

Picture: Bluglass

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