Sapphire industry challenge

[Text / "High-tech LED - Technology and Applications" September issue]

In 2010, the sapphire substrate increased its heat and suddenly became the darling of the capital market. A large amount of capital poured into this industry, and emerging sapphire companies have sprung up. From the end of 2010 to the present, China's sapphire enterprises have grown rapidly from less than five to dozens. The increase in supply and low-price competition led to a sharp drop in the price of sapphire substrate sheets, from $35 at the peak to $7-8 (2-inch sapphire substrates). At the same time, downstream applications penetrate into high-power lighting, so the quality technical requirements for upstream products are getting higher and higher. The market brings both the cost and quality of sapphire to both old and new companies.

Stabilizing the process is the basis for improving quality and reducing costs

The establishment of sapphire enterprises often requires large-scale investment. A large number of emerging companies have just entered the industry and have encountered a low market period, and basically have to bear large losses. Therefore, under various pressures, these emerging sapphire companies often adopt blindly “improving” technology and desperately increase the crystal size and other methods of rushing forward, hoping to reduce production costs in a short period of time and make an early profit. Although the adventurous spirit is worth encouraging, the losses caused by the detours are difficult to recover.

The growth of sapphire crystals is very precise and sensitive, and the requirements for the environment, technicians, and operators are very high. Emerging sapphire companies, whether they purchase foreign imported equipment or domestically produced equipment, have generally encountered problems of technical instability and process instability. It is no problem to grow a good ingot, but how to sustain a large amount of ingots for a long time is the challenge we face.

Due to the difficulty in controlling the growth of long crystal equipment and the lack of support from independent technical teams in China, many emerging crystal growth companies have experienced the initial stage of the loss of long and bad crystal ingots. With the sales of large-size sapphire substrates soaring, many companies are pursuing large-scale one-sidedness in the case where the process and technology of small-sized crystals are still immature. However, in the context of the performance indicators and yield of domestic related companies' sapphire substrates are still low, and the sapphire substrate material growth professionals are also relatively lacking, blind pursuit of large size is not desirable. Crystal growth is a complex process that requires close cooperation with equipment manufacturers to ensure optimal conditions for equipment and the environment. Every step and small detail in the process has a critical impact on crystal growth. Enterprises should take stable technology and technology as their top priority, and steadily stabilize the growth of 85 kg ingots, strive to grow each ingot, and then pursue 100 kg, 120 kg, or even greater. The crystals go steady every step.

Increasing the crystal size is not the ultimate goal

Increasing the size of the crystal is not the ultimate goal. It is very simple to simply increase the size of the crystal. It is only necessary to put more alumina raw material into the crystal growth crucible, or to fill the gap after filling the raw material. But in fact, an increase in crystal size does not necessarily lead to an increase in yield. In addition to the EFG method, after the crystal growth, the ingot is removed from the ingot and further processed to form a sapphire substrate sheet. The size and geometry of the ingot and the area of ​​the crystal area available for the LED ultimately determine the yield of the ingot, which also substantially determines the yield of subsequent processing. Regardless of other factors, only increasing the size of the crystal, the requirements for equipment and process will be increased, the available area of ​​the LED may be reduced, and the crystal is increased without changing the device, mainly increasing the height of the crystal. It is not necessarily more suitable for the geometry of the crowbar.

But it is not that it is not advisable to increase the size of the crystal. Through the improvement of the process, the number of the ingots is calculated in combination with the expected size of the ingot, and the yield of the crowbar is further increased while increasing the crystal size, thereby realizing the stability of the process and technology for growing the ingot. In this case, the cost of the finished product can be reduced, thereby winning the market for large-sized sapphire substrates in the future.

Unfinished

For more information, please refer to the September issue of "High-tech LED-Technology and Applications"

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