AIXTRON AG has announced an order for one Close Coupled Showerhead MOCVD system from Tyndall National Institute, based in University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. The order was received in the fourth quarter 2009 and the system will be delivered in the first half of 2010 in a 3x2 inch wafer configuration.

Professor Peter Parbrook, who has been appointed to lead the GaN growth activity at the Tyndall National Institute using strategic funding from Science Foundation Ireland, comments: “From our existing AIXTRON reactors we are very familiar with the quality of performance and engineering available with their tools. There are many reasons why we opted for a CCS reactor for our GaN programme: for instance the flexible reactor configuration which includes gap adjustment. Plus we can work with a range of different substrate sizes to suit our various research projects. Inherently, the tool also has high growth uniformity and we are looking forward to using the ARGUS pyrometric system to give us precision in-situ monitoring and process control.” The growth tool will complement Tyndall’s existing expertise in the theory of GaN photonic materials and fabrication of GaN based devices.

Following installation by local AIXTRON support team the new system will be used to support work on advanced GaN technologies. This includes growth of GaN / (Al, Ga, In)N-based materials for opto-electronic and micro-electronic devices with a focus on high temperature growth of AlGaN structures.

About Tyndall National Institute
Tyndall National Institute, UCC is one of Europe's leading research centres, specialising in ICT hardware research, commercialisation of technology and the education of next generation researchers. The Institute has a critical mass of over 370 researchers, engineers, students and support staff focused on quality research and the commercialisation of technology through industry collaboration. Tyndall addresses technological challenges, to provide solutions in the key areas of Communications, Energy, Health and the Environment, spanning research from atoms to systems in photonics, microsystems and micro-nanoelectronics. The research is backed by a strong expertise in theory, modelling and design and a wafer fabrication facility with CMOS, III-V and MEMS capability.