AIXTRON is pleased to announce a new contract with Rockwell Semiconductor Systems in Newbury Park, CA, for delivery of an AIX 2600G3, the newest version of the multiwafer MOCVD Planetary Reactor^®.

 AIXTRON is the world's leading MOCVD equipment and technology supplier, and is proud to receive this repeat order from Rockwell. The AIX 2600G3 is the third generation of the proven Planetary Reactor for production scale manufacturing, "offering new and enhanced features". It will be used by Rockwell in an automated 9x4 batch mode. The system was selected mainly due to:

• the high level of automation and its simplicity, unrivalled in the MOCVD industry - with true cassette-to-cassette loading of wafers - the AIX 2600G3 offers higher uptime and throughput, as well as easier handling and flexibility
• the low Cost of Ownership due to the Planetary Reactor concept, which allows fabrication of material with highest uniformity, excellent control of growth and abrupt interfaces - this is vital for the production of HEMTs - at a fraction of the gas consumption and V/III ratio compared to competing MOCVD reactors
• low defect density - this has been proven by other manufacturers of GaAs based electronic devices and is due to the low speed of rotation which is more than a factor 10 below competing reactors
• high compatibility with most independent second source suppliers

 After many years of continous MOCVD development, the Planetary Reactor has proven to be the most efficient MOCVD reactor concept for all III-V applications, and with its proven scaling potential is unrivalled in industry. Many AIXTRON reactors are already being used for the manufacture of a wide variety of products. Now, the repeatability of stable processes, and the excellent reproducibility demonstrated by numerous customers in production scale manufacturing, demonstrated that the technology was ready for true automation. In its recent developments, AIXTRON therefore put emphasis on the integration with true Cassette-to-Cassette wafer handling systems. These wafer handlers are readily available from the Silicon industry.

 The AIX 2400/2600G3 is the third generation of Planetary Reactors and includes options for all key features already developed for in situ monitoring of the process parameters such as monitoring of the rotation of the satellite and monitoring of the important reactor boundary conditions. The system can be used for the processing of III-V electronic devices, UHB-LEDs, solar cells, II-VI and other material systems.

 AIXTRON offers a wide range of epitaxial systems for MOVPE, VPE and LPE from R & D- oriented systems up to large-scale Planetary Reactor production systems for up to 95 x 2" wafers. The company has sold over 230 systems worldwide, provides an extensive service and support network for maintenance and upgrading and is represented in 18 countries.