!!! Press Release !!!

HIGHLINK TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION CHOOSES AIX 2600G3 HT PLANETARY REACTOR^®
ensuring highly cost-effective manufacture of UHB GaN-LEDs

Aachen/Hsin-Chu, October 18th, 2002 - Highlink Technology Corporation, a high-quality designer and manufacturer of GaN-based High-Brightness LEDs for advanced lighting applications, has just received an AIX 2600G3 HT Planetary Reactor® for high volume production of epi-wafers in the colour spectrum from UV to green. The company, which was established in 2000, has now successfully positioned its products to meet world-wide demand for high quality LED wafers and chips. The delivered system, renowned for its high quality features, is also equipped with the unique in-situ monitoring tool EPITUNE®II, which allows for on-line analysis of reflectance and wafer temperatures, thus improving statistic process control (SPC).

Dr. Kenny Sun, President of Highlink comments: "Our company mission is to deliver highly reliable and cost-effective LEDs to our customers. The AIX 2600G3 HT Planetary Reactor®, which is delivering devices with vastly superior properties and operating with extremely high utilization of precursors, is providing us with a superb quality production tool to ensure fulfillment of this goal." Dr. Bernd Schulte, Executive Vice President and COO of AIXTRON adds "Our state-of-the-art MOCVD Reactors are ensuring that customers like Highlink can efficiently ramp-up production capacities now to strategically position their products onto the booming UHB-LED market."

The AIX 2600G3 HT reactor, with its capacity for 24x2" wafers, is the largest high temperature Reactor for GaN-based materials available worldwide. The two-flow horizontal Planetary Reactor® is recognized as the most widely used multiwafer MOCVD reactor for compound semiconductor applications. The unique Reactor Concept allows laminar gas flow without turbulence for precise control of the material composition and achievement of ultra-sharp interfaces. Ultra-high uniformity along with high growth efficiency on multiple 2" or 3" wafers is achieved through wafer rotation with AIXTRON's patented Gas Foil Rotation®.

With an installed base of well over 650 systems world-wide, AIXTRON is, as verified by VLSI Research Inc., the world leading supplier of equipment for semiconductor epitaxy and has been rated once more amongst the 2002 10 BEST in its category in the most recent VLSI Customer Satisfaction Survey. Its equipment is used by a diverse range of customers world-wide to manufacture critical, advanced components such as HBTs, PHEMTs, MESFETs, Lasers, LEDs, Detectors and VCSELs used in fiber optic communications systems, wireless and mobile telephony applications, optical storage devices, illumination, signaling and lighting, as well as a range of other leading edge technologies. The company has an extensive service and support network in over 15 countries. AIXTRON's many customers include Agere, Alcatel, Anritsu, ATMI, Avalon, AXT, Epistar, Epson, Honeywell, Infineon, IQE, IQE Silicon Compounds, ITT, JDS-Uniphase, Kopin, LumiLeds, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Nortel, Optospeed, Osram, Procomp, Samsung, Showa Denko, Siemens, ST Microelectronics, Sumitomo, Thales, UEC, VPEC as well as numerous Japanese corporations. AIXTRON systems have also been installed in the most renowned research institutes world-wide, including CNRS, Fraunhofer Institute, ITRI-OES, JPL, Meijo University, NDL Taiwan, Research Center Jülich, RIKEN, Sandia Nat Lab, Tsinghua University and the University of Tokyo. AIXTRON is very active in advancing MOCVD technology through collaborations and joint R&D projects with major partners world-wide. AIXTRON AG (FSE: AIX ISIN DE0005066203) is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and the MSCI World Index.

For further information please contact:

© AIXTRON AG, October 18, 2002

Homepage | Contact | About Aixtron | Products & Services | Customer Support | R & D | Production Results | What's new | Events

© 1996 - 2003 by AIXTRON AG