IQE
Encyclopedia
IQE is a semiconductor
company that manufacturers advanced epitaxial
wafers for a wide range of technology applications for wireless
, optoelectronic, electronic
and solar
devices. IQE specialises in advanced silicon
and compound semiconductor
materials based on gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon
. The company is the largest independent outsource producer of epiwafers manufactured by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy
(MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy
(MBE) and chemical vapor deposition
(CVD).
The company was founded in 1988 in Cardiff
, Wales
, where there are two manufacturing facilities and the group's headquarters. Other locations include Milton Keynes
and Bath in England
; Somerset, New Jersey
and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
in the United States
, and Singapore
.
s (LEDs) and photodetectors designed to operate at wavelengths of 1300 nm and 1550 nm utilised for long distance fiber optic communications.
In 1999, Epitaxial Products International merged with Pennsylvania based Quantum Epitaxial Designs (QED) to form IQE. QED was founded by Tom Hierl and the merger between QED and EPI to form IQE was suggested to Tom Hierl by Dr. Keith Evans, who then was the Vice President of Operations at QED. Also in 1999, the newly merged entity underwent an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the European EASDAQ (NASDAQ Europe) stock exchange, followed a year later by a listing on the London Stock Exchange
.
The merger with QED brought to the group a range of new manufacturing tools based on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)
technology and a range of products for the wireless telecommunications. Following the merger, IQE became the first independent outsource manufacturer of both optoelectronic and radio frequency (RF) epitaxial wafers produced using both MOCVD and MBE technologies. The Bethlehem, PA facility specialised in a number of wireless products including pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (pHEMTs) and metal semiconductor field-effect transistors(MESFETs)
.
In 2000, the company formed a new, wholly owned subsidiary company specialising in silicon based epitaxy. IQE Silicon was established in a new facility adjacent to the group's headquarters and European manufacturing base in Cardiff
, Wales, UK. The new subsidiary used chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
tools to produce silicon
and germanium
epitaxial wafers for enhanced silicon processing performance, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
and nanotechnology
applications.
Also in 2000, the group acquired Wafer Technology based in Milton Keynes, UK
. The acquisition provided the group with in-house production of gallium arsenide (GaAs)
and indium phosphide (InP)
substrates as well as adding capabilities for gallium antimonide (GaSb) and indium antimonide (InSb) for infrared
applications.
In 2006, the Group acquired the Electronic Materials Division from Emcore, providing IQE with its second US operation based in Somerset, NJ. This acquisition added further Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) capacity and complementary radio frequency (RF) products including heterojunction bipolar transistor
s (HBTs) and bipolar field-effect transistors (BiFETs)
.
Also in 2006, the group made a further acquisition in the form of Singapore
based MBET technologies which provided the group with complete multi-site, multi-technology and multi-product capabilities to form the world's largest independent contract manufacturer of epitaxial wafers.
In 2009 the group added new free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) substrate capability with the acquisition of NanoGaN, a spin out start-up from the University of Bath
.
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
company that manufacturers advanced epitaxial
Epitaxy
Epitaxy refers to the deposition of a crystalline overlayer on a crystalline substrate, where the overlayer is in registry with the substrate. In other words, there must be one or more preferred orientations of the overlayer with respect to the substrate for this to be termed epitaxial growth. The...
wafers for a wide range of technology applications for wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
, optoelectronic, electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
and solar
Concentrated photovoltaics
Concentrated photovoltaic technology uses optics such as lenses to concentrate a large amount of sunlight onto a small area of solar photovoltaic materials to generate electricity...
devices. IQE specialises in advanced silicon
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
and compound semiconductor
Compound semiconductor
A compound semiconductor is a semiconductor compound composed of elements from two or more different groups of the periodic table . These semiconductors typically form in groups 13-16 ,...
materials based on gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
. The company is the largest independent outsource producer of epiwafers manufactured by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy
Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy
Metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy , also known as organometallic vapour phase epitaxy or metalorganic chemical vapour deposition , is a chemical vapour deposition method of epitaxial growth of materials, especially compound semiconductors, from the surface reaction of organic compounds or...
(MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy
Molecular beam epitaxy
Molecular beam epitaxy is one of several methods of depositing single crystals. It was invented in the late 1960s at Bell Telephone Laboratories by J. R. Arthur and Alfred Y. Cho.-Method:...
(MBE) and chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition is a chemical process used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In a typical CVD process, the wafer is exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or...
(CVD).
The company was founded in 1988 in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, where there are two manufacturing facilities and the group's headquarters. Other locations include Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
and Bath in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
; Somerset, New Jersey
Somerset, New Jersey
Somerset is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located at the easternmost section within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey. At the 2000 United States Census, the CDP population was 23,040...
and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
.
History
IQE was founded by Dr Drew Nelson and Dr Michael Scott in 1988 as Epitaxial Products International (EPI). Initially, the company specialised in producing epitaxial wafers for optoelectronic devices used primarily in fiber optic telecommunications. Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) technology was used to produce semiconductor lasers, light-emitting diodeLight-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
s (LEDs) and photodetectors designed to operate at wavelengths of 1300 nm and 1550 nm utilised for long distance fiber optic communications.
In 1999, Epitaxial Products International merged with Pennsylvania based Quantum Epitaxial Designs (QED) to form IQE. QED was founded by Tom Hierl and the merger between QED and EPI to form IQE was suggested to Tom Hierl by Dr. Keith Evans, who then was the Vice President of Operations at QED. Also in 1999, the newly merged entity underwent an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the European EASDAQ (NASDAQ Europe) stock exchange, followed a year later by a listing on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
.
The merger with QED brought to the group a range of new manufacturing tools based on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)
Molecular beam epitaxy
Molecular beam epitaxy is one of several methods of depositing single crystals. It was invented in the late 1960s at Bell Telephone Laboratories by J. R. Arthur and Alfred Y. Cho.-Method:...
technology and a range of products for the wireless telecommunications. Following the merger, IQE became the first independent outsource manufacturer of both optoelectronic and radio frequency (RF) epitaxial wafers produced using both MOCVD and MBE technologies. The Bethlehem, PA facility specialised in a number of wireless products including pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (pHEMTs) and metal semiconductor field-effect transistors(MESFETs)
MESFET
MESFET stands for metal semiconductor field effect transistor. It is quite similar to a JFET in construction and terminology. The difference is that instead of using a p-n junction for a gate, a Schottky junction is used...
.
In 2000, the company formed a new, wholly owned subsidiary company specialising in silicon based epitaxy. IQE Silicon was established in a new facility adjacent to the group's headquarters and European manufacturing base in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
, Wales, UK. The new subsidiary used chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
Chemical vapor deposition
Chemical vapor deposition is a chemical process used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In a typical CVD process, the wafer is exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or...
tools to produce silicon
Silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...
and germanium
Germanium
Germanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is a lustrous, hard, grayish-white metalloid in the carbon group, chemically similar to its group neighbors tin and silicon. The isolated element is a semiconductor, with an appearance most similar to elemental silicon....
epitaxial wafers for enhanced silicon processing performance, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
Microelectromechanical systems
Microelectromechanical systems is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology...
and nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
applications.
Also in 2000, the group acquired Wafer Technology based in Milton Keynes, UK
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
. The acquisition provided the group with in-house production of gallium arsenide (GaAs)
Gaas
Gaas is a commune in the Landes department in Aquitaine in south-western France....
and indium phosphide (InP)
INP
INP may stand for:*INP , a Korean chemical company*INP , an early database system developed at the University of California, Berkeley*Integrated National Police, a forerunner of the Philippine National Police...
substrates as well as adding capabilities for gallium antimonide (GaSb) and indium antimonide (InSb) for infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
applications.
In 2006, the Group acquired the Electronic Materials Division from Emcore, providing IQE with its second US operation based in Somerset, NJ. This acquisition added further Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) capacity and complementary radio frequency (RF) products including heterojunction bipolar transistor
Heterojunction bipolar transistor
The heterojunction bipolar transistor is a type of bipolar junction transistor which uses differing semiconductor materials for the emitter and base regions, creating a heterojunction. The HBT improves on the BJT in that it that can handle signals of very high frequencies, up to several hundred...
s (HBTs) and bipolar field-effect transistors (BiFETs)
Field-effect transistor
The field-effect transistor is a transistor that relies on an electric field to control the shape and hence the conductivity of a channel of one type of charge carrier in a semiconductor material. FETs are sometimes called unipolar transistors to contrast their single-carrier-type operation with...
.
Also in 2006, the group made a further acquisition in the form of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
based MBET technologies which provided the group with complete multi-site, multi-technology and multi-product capabilities to form the world's largest independent contract manufacturer of epitaxial wafers.
In 2009 the group added new free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) substrate capability with the acquisition of NanoGaN, a spin out start-up from the University of Bath
University of Bath
The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....
.