Kopin® Corporation (Nasdaq: KOPN), the world’s leading producer of hetero-junction bipolar transistors (HBT) for smart phones and other mobile devices and the largest U.S. manufacturer of micro-displays for consumer, industrial and military applications, today announced that Kopin and AIXTRON AG (FSE: AIXA; NASDAQ: AIXG) have completed a multi-year purchase and supply agreement for additional AIXTRON high-volume metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems.
This investment supports Kopin’s latest capacity ramp to meet consumers’ insatiable appetite for smart phones, e-books and a multitude of other wireless communication devices.
“These new AIXTRON systems are the most advanced multi-wafer machines for HBT manufacturing,” said Dr. John C.C. Fan, Kopin’s president and chief executive officer. “They will enable us to further increase our 6-inch wafer capacity to meet the rapidly increasing customer demand for more devices, as well as for more complex device structures required for smart phones. For the past few years, we have been using the same type of systems for manufacturing 6-inch wafers. We have gained tremendous know-how that has enabled us not only to increase throughput and yield, but to achieve better and more consistent device performance. We believe that the purchase of the same advanced manufacturing platform will further shorten the time to manufacturing and increase our operational efficiency and consistency.”
Paul Hyland, president and chief executive officer of AIXTRON, stated, “We are very pleased that Kopin has again selected our 7x6-inch ‘Integrated Concept (IC) Platform’ tool to meet the company’s growing demand. Our relationship with Kopin is now in its second decade, and we are excited that our technology and services remain a key part of Kopin’s wafer manufacturing platform. Our two companies have supported the MOCVD industry for more than 20 years, and our focus and technology continue to lead the market with new products which are well positioned to meet this newest wave of wireless expansion around the world.”
Kopin first installed AIXTRON’s 7x6 IC tools in its Taunton, Massachusetts manufacturing facility four years ago to fully develop and optimize the tools’ performance with its proprietary HBT, BiFET (Bipolar – Field Effect Transistor), pHEMT (Pseudomorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor) and BiHEMT (Bipolar – High Electron Mobility Transistor) manufacturing processes. The first two systems of this newest multi-year order will be installed at Kopin Taiwan Corporation (KTC) in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan by the end of this year. As previously announced, Kopin expanded its investment in KTC in August 2009, and since that time has been expanding capacity and capability at this facility.
“Over the past two years, we have executed our plan to support our customers’ conversion to 6-inch wafers from 4-inch wafers, expanded our III-V product offerings to pHEMT and BiHEMT, and successfully achieved a 50 percent increase in overall manufacturing capacity,” stated Daily Hill, Kopin’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of the III-V Group. “This newest tool order with AIXTRON starts our next plan for an additional 50 percent capacity expansion in our facilities in the U.S. and Taiwan. The reliability and precision of these AIXTRON tools, coupled with Kopin’s proprietary recipes and manufacturing expertise, create the highest yielding, most technologically advanced product wafers. Our newest capacity expansion plan will ensure that Kopin continues to deliver world-class customer support to our valuable partners throughout the wireless industry.”
Source: http://www.aixtron.com/