Veeco Instruments Inc. announced that EXALOS has ordered a Propel GaN Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System for the research and development of high-performance broadband superluminescent light emitting diodes (SLEDs). EXALOS, headquartered in Switzerland, is expected to receive the Propel system in the third quarter of 2018.

“Veeco’s Propel platform is uniquely qualified to provide the most capable process flexibility with the best results, all while maintaining the lowest cost-of-ownership,” said Christian Velez, Chief Executive Officer of EXALOS. “The addition of this platform will enable us to achieve new levels of innovation and success.”

Superluminescent LEDs are semiconductor devices that emit broadband light in a highly directional beam through electrical current injection. SLEDs are a hybrid between LEDs, which emit broadband light from a surface in all directions, and semiconductor laser diodes, which emit narrowband light from a waveguide with a well-defined laser beam. SLEDs are used in medical and industrial imaging, motion control detectors, navigation, optical sensing and metrology applications.

“With over 400,000 SLED units shipped and strong technical expertise, EXALOS is a proven leader in this space,” said Peo Hansson, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and General Manager of Veeco MOCVD Operations. “We are looking forward to working with them closely as the capability of our Propel platform, which serves a wide range of specialized applications, complements their technology and advanced product roadmap.”

Veeco Propel GaN MOCVD system (Image: Veeco)

Veeco’s Propel GaN MOCVD system is designed to provide a wide process window and flexible configurations that result in handling a wide range of GaN applications ranging from Power/RF to advanced LEDs, including Micro LEDs, Laser Diodes, UV LEDs and SLEDs. The system is extremely versatile to process six and eight-inch wafers in a single wafer mode, as well as two to four-inch wafers in a mini-batch mode. The Propel reactor is based on Veeco’s TurboDisc® technology including the new IsoFlange and SymmHeat breakthrough technologies, which provide homogeneous laminar flow and uniform temperature profile across the entire wafer.