Sapphire Crystal Growth technology to reduce MicroLED manufacturing Environmental impact

LED manufacturing is a complex and technically challenging process. very few companies worldwide operate across all segments of the value chain. The areas of specialization and expertise existing in the industry break down the value chain for LED manufacturing into three large segments, i.e., substrate production, LED die fabrication and packaged LED assembly. As micro-LED takes a core importance due to immense energy-saving benefits there is a push to upscale to 8-inch LED epitaxy and consequently 8-inch substrate platform. This is to achieve surface-area multiplier, and accordingly, the yield multiplier benefits in the LED die fabrication process. Sapphire crystal-based substrate indicates specific advantages over other substrate materials regarding the balance of lattice match and cost competitiveness for LED epitaxy application. However, the Sapphire crystal growth in the substrate production is one of the most energy intensive processes in the entire LED production chain with an energy contribution of 160.46 kWh per 8-inch wafer with the conventional Kyropoulos growth process employed in Asia. This is equivalent to a CO2 emission of 96.27 kg per wafer. At FAMETEC GmbH in Austria, a highly energy-efficient technology named as McSap (Multi-Crystal-Sapphire) growth has been developed that brings down the energy contribution to 28.16 kWh per 8-inch wafer and the equivalent CO2 emission to 10.00 kg per wafer. This is equivalent to 89.61% decrease in CO2 emission in sapphire substrate wafers produced in Europe when compared to the emission produced from the prevalent technology in Asia. The dramatic reduction in environmental footprint is achieved by a leading-edge thermal design of McSap simultaneous growth of multiple sapphire crystals along the crystal axis in 8-inch cylindrical volumes eliminating the need for the wasteful coring and grinding steps typically required in traditional growth methods. Which led to the increase in the yield of usable, high-quality sapphire material.