Asahi Kasei orders AIXTRON CCS tool to start commercial production of Deep UV LEDs

AIXTRON SE (FSE: AIXA; NASDAQ: AIXG), a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, today announced that Japanese chemical company Asahi Kasei has ordered an AIXTRON 
Close Coupled Showerhead system (CCS) for pilot production of Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) LEDs based on Aluminum Gallium Nitride (AlGaN). The system is scheduled for delivery in the third quarter 2015.

Asahi Kasei’s decision to purchase an AIXTRON Showerhead reactor for production of DUV LEDs is based on the positive experience with a previous MOCVD tool already in operation. The company chose AIXTRON’s well-proven CCS technology again as it enables the optimization of the chamber geometry for both high and low pressure regimes by the additional dynamic chamber height adjustment.

Dr. Bernd Schulte, Executive Vice President and COO of AIXTRON SE, says: “Our MOCVD tool enables pilot production as well as R&D applications with processes that are directly scalable to larger systems. Enhanced by the reliable 3-zone heater the system also provides excellent temperature uniformity. This leaves Asahi Kasei with a very flexible, high-quality tool, perfectly matching the increasing demand for high performance deposition systems for new application fields such as DUV LEDs.”

High-performance DUV LEDs are used for purification and sterilization in a variety of applications, including industrial and point-of-use (POU) water purification. DUV LEDs are also used in scientific and industrial instruments to measure the purity of water, air, surfaces and biological samples.

Asahi Kasei was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Tokyo. The company is listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of TOPIX 100 as well as Nikkei 225 stock market indices. In 2014, the company had total revenues of USD 18.5 billion. Since 2011, the U.S.-based manufacturer of UVC LEDs Crystal IS is part of the Asahi Kasei group.

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