Trinity Material in China has cooperated with ARC Energy to use ARC Energy’s CHES furnaces for sapphire production.

The two companies are paving the way for new industry expectations and opportunities based on c-axis growth orientation for LED manufacturing. Trinity Material is successfully ramping up to produce very high volumes of sapphire crystals to meet the growing demand for large diameter sapphire wafers in the LED market.

Sapphire boules are grown on c-axis by ARC Energy’s CHES method compared to conventional processes where a-axis boules are grown and c-axis wafers are extracted.

ARC Energy’s proprietary and fully automated CHES technology produces c-axis boules that are the optimum orientation for LED applications and, the firm says when compared with conventional a-axis technologies, lead to higher material utilisation and lower overall costs for large diameter sapphire production.

“Our unique and flexible c-axis CHES furnaces allow Trinity Material to serve the rapidly expanding demand for large diameter sapphire substrates, ranging from four inches to eight inches. We are pleased to partner with Trinity Material to help them expand their business in the LED marketplace,” adds Rick Schwerdtfeger, co-founder and chief technology officer for ARC Energy.