Epitaxial wafer house EpiWorks has finished the second phase of the expansion of its Champaign, IL, production facility. The company, which now has a solar-cell wafer product line, has doubled its cleanroom space for III-V semiconductor substrate manufacturing.
“We have carefully planned the additional cleanroom space and production capacity with customers to ensure that EpiWorks continues to stay ahead of demand,” said David Ahmari, the company’s executive VP. “With the new cleanroom online, the additional wall-to-wall capacity also enhances our ability to quickly add more production tools and provides greater flexibility for new product development.”
EpiWorks provides 4- and 6-inch wafers to the wireless and solar industry as well as 2-, 3-, 4-, and 6-inch substrates to the semiconductor laser and detector industry. The phase II expansion provides enough cleanroom space for EpiWorks to produce more than 200,000 6-inch wafers per year at the facility, according to the company.
“We are excited by the progress we made with customers in 2009, despite the unusual economic conditions,” said CEO Quesnell Hartmann. “In addition to maintaining profitability, EpiWorks qualified several new wireless, laser, and detector products and established a new solar cell wafer product line. The new production floor will allow us to increase output in each of these areas.
“Our contractors and employees have done a fantastic job meeting our timing and budgetary goals, thus providing a smooth runway for increasing production in 2010 and beyond,” he concluded.
The cost of the expansion program has not been disclosed.
The company employs Aixtron MOCVD tooling as its core equipment for processing a variety of wafer types based on the indium-phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) materials systems.
