Sumitomo, EMCORE Sign Agreement
-- Semiconductor International, 7/1/1999
EMCORE Corp. (Somerset, N.J.) has signed a long-term
agreement with Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI, Hyogo, Japan) to jointly
develop and manufacture indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) epitaxial wafers for as
heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) devices used in digital wireless and
cellular applications. These advanced compound semiconductor HBT wafers will be
produced at EMCORE's Epitaxial Materials (E2M) wafer foundry in Somerset, N.J.
Sumitomo Electric brings to the joint effort unique material characterization
capabilities, and EMCORE's E2M foundry has the capacity needed for commercial
volume production. The partnership represents a strategic international alliance
that enables InGaP HBTs to move more rapidly into the commercial sector,
according to Reuben Richards, president and CEO of EMCORE.
SEI will market the new HBT materials in Japan, which currently produces approximately 40% of the $1.7B world market for gallium arsenide-based wireless devices. According to market research from Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, Calif.), in 1998 HBT epitaxial wafer shipments were the fastest growing segment of the GaAs epitaxial wafer market. HBT wafer shipments grew 72% over 1997 levels, reaching nearly 400,000 in2.
