The name, unpacked
MOCVD stands for metal-organic chemical vapour deposition: the growth step — epitaxy — in the chain this company publishes. In that chain, the substrate is sapphire and the step runs on its own GaN MOCVD equipment, between the reactor programme it was founded to build and the chip fabrication that follows growth.
Epitaxy in the published chain
In this company's chain, epitaxy is the growth step itself — the step its own chain runs between its MOCVD equipment and its chip fabrication, on sapphire.
The step in this company's chain
In the chain the company publishes, this process is the growth step between its MOCVD equipment and its chip fabrication: GaN-MOCVD equipment, epitaxial growth on sapphire, chip fabrication and packaging, run end to end on its own line since 2010. What a reactor configuration will grow for a buyer's layer programme is established per project in the configuration exchange. The component catalogue — chips and packages — is the other half of the same documented sequence.
The inputs a configuration is specified against
- Wafer format and loading: the wafer size, and the number of wafers per run the programme targets.
- Layer programme: the layer stack the buyer's devices are built from, stated in the enquiry.
- Throughput: the run rate the system must sustain, with the runs-per-day duty.
- Facility interface: the conditions at the installation site the configuration must connect to.
Configurations are specified per project against those inputs.
Reactor generations, in one company's record
Jason's history is a compact illustration of how the technology matured in China. Founded in 2001 specifically to develop GaN MOCVD equipment, it completed a first system in 2002, a 3-wafer system in 2005, and a 6-wafer system in 2007 — the latter recorded as a national 863 programme project. The decisive step came in 2010, when the company built a UV LED production line on its own reactors and produced 280 nm deep UV LEDs — the equipment builder became an epitaxy operator in its own right, and the LED business acquired epitaxy it fully controlled. See the GaN MOCVD programme page and the equipment page.
The growth step in this company's record
For deep UV, the growth step is where this company's own record runs: reactors built since 2002, and a UV LED production line on its own equipment since 2010 — the line behind the chips in this catalogue.
The takeaway for buyers
When you qualify a deep UV component supplier, you are really qualifying an epitaxy operation. Ask who grows the wafers, on whose reactors, and how long that line has run your wavelength. A supplier that builds the reactors and runs them for its own production — in Jason's case, a UV LED line on its own equipment since 2010, with 280 nm the band that line first produced — is answering those questions with its org chart, which is precisely Jason's structure. The record behind those answers is published: reactors since 2002, the UV LED line since 2010, application products commercialised by 2012.
From reactor to finished LED: the handoffs
After epitaxy, the chain the company publishes names chip fabrication, and packaging as its final step.
Reactor configurations
The reactor programme is the company's founding product line: a first system in 2002, a 3-wafer generation in 2005 and a 6-wafer generation in 2007. A new configuration is specified per project in the configuration exchange, against the inputs the enquiry states first — wafer format, layer programme, throughput and facility interface.
Reading a supplier through its reactor
A deep UV supplier's answers about its epitaxy — whose reactors, which platform generations, how long at your wavelength — are part of the enquiry exchange. Jason's answers are on its published record: the reactors are its founding product and, since 2010, the production tool of its own LED line.
Process knowledge compounds
The last point is about the record itself. The reactor programme's milestones are dated: first system in 2002, the 3-wafer generation in 2005, the 6-wafer generation in 2007, and the company's own UV LED production line on its own equipment from 2010. Each step is stated in the company's published history.
What an equipment enquiry states
An equipment enquiry states the wafer format and loading the buyer needs, the layer programme being targeted, the throughput the system must sustain, the runs-per-day duty and the facility conditions at the installation site — gases, exhaust, cooling and cleanroom class. Configurations are specified per project against those inputs; what a configuration covers for a given project is defined in that project's quotation, and what it will grow for the buyer's layer programme is established in the same exchange.
Two product lines, one documented sequence
The equipment programme and the component catalogue share a documented sequence. The company was founded in 2001 to develop GaN MOCVD equipment and completed its first system in 2002; the 3-wafer generation followed in 2005 and the 6-wafer generation in 2007, recorded in the company history as a national 863 programme project. In 2009 the company restructured with government investment and brought in a returned-overseas doctoral team; in 2010 it opened its UV LED production line on its own equipment, and application products were commercialised by 2012. Each step is stated in the company's published history.
What a component enquiry states
An enquiry for components from the catalogue states the band and the form — bare chip, SMD package or finished module; the dose target, with the organism set and log credit behind it; the drive point and duty the device will run at; the thermal arrangement the design provides; and the quantities and programme timing the order will run to. It asks which ratings are recorded for the named model and under what conditions they were recorded, and names any validation file the finished product will cite. Where the application is a regulated product, the message also names the market the product will be sold into.
The two conversations, kept separate
A programme can be buying components, epitaxy capacity, or both — and the first message says which. Components from the published chain are confirmed per model in the enquiry exchange, against the model named in the message. Capacity is an equipment conversation, specified per project against the wafer format, layer programme, throughput and facility inputs the equipment sections set out. Stating the starting point plainly — components for a product line already designed, capacity for a line still being built — keeps each confirmation answering the question the programme is actually asking, at the volumes and dates it names, rather than a nominal programme that matches neither.