Semiconductor wafer manufacturer IQE (Cardiff, England) received its first $1 million dollar purchase order agreement for indium antimonide (InSb) substrates that are used in advanced mid-wavelength infrared (mid-IR or MWIR) imaging technology. IQE Infrared's US substrate division, Galaxy Compound Semiconductor (Spokane, WA), has been contracted to deliver volume quantities of InSb substrates to an industry leader and long-term customer. This represents the largest order to date for this new range of infrared substrates.
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IQE says that InSb is the material of choice for MWIR imaging technology and that cameras fabricated from InSb are used in a wide variety of advanced imaging applications (defense, security, medical, and industrial). IQE is uniquely positioned in this market and is the exclusive supplier of all InSb to industry, with IQE’s US (Galaxy) and UK (Wafer Technology) operations collectively meeting the requirements of its customers to provide a secure, dual-source supply of InSb substrates.
IQE CEO Drew Nelson said, "We are very pleased to receive this order from a long term customer of our InSb substrate product range. The scale of this commitment reflects our success in being able to offer a volume manufacturing capability for InSb materials. The investments that we have made to enhance our crystal growth, wafering and substrate polishing capabilities at both Galaxy and Wafer Technology will enable us to fully meet the InSb product demands of our customers, both in terms of volume and quality, across a full 2"-6" product range."
SOURCE: IQE; http://www.iqep.com/news-2014/Apr_16_14.asp