Nashua, NH, USA-based advanced RenewableEnergy Company LLC (ARC Energy), a provider of c-axis sapphire growth technologies and turnkey solutions for the LED solid-state lighting market, has released the white paper ‘LED Manufacturing Study on CHES Sapphire’ showing that sapphire grown from its proprietary CHES (Controlled Heat Extraction System) technology yield 5% greater LED brightness than the industry standard.

The study purposefully included sapphire material exhibiting a wide range of etch-pit density (EPD) levels to determine whether or not EPD affects LED manufacturing. The study took sapphire through the complete LED chip manufacturing process and concluded that all material passed LED standards and that no correlation was found between LED performance and EPD level of CHES wafers.

“We are pleased to see CHES achieving significantly higher LED brightness, which translates to higher profits for our customers,” says co-founder & chief technology officer Dr Rick Schwerdtfeger.

ARC’s study is the first subject in a new series called ‘CHES Foundations’, which explains how CHES technology and CHES furnaces are enabling sapphire growth companies to meet increasing demand. Several customers have already announced that their CHES sapphire has been qualified by multiple LED makers.

ARC says that one key advantage of its CHES furnaces is dramatically higher material utilization due to sapphire growth on the c-plane. This approach produces large-diameter substrates at a significantly lower cost. Greater than 75% material utilization can be achieved using c-plane CHES furnaces while other methods are limited to less than 35%, it is claimed. CHES furnaces are also highly automated, reducing operating costs and providing consistent output.

ARC says that its CHES furnaces are designed to produce higher-performance sapphire at larger wafer sizes compared to older technologies. The furnace produces high-yield sapphire up to 10” diameter, providing higher efficiency downstream in the LED manufacturing process and upstream as c-plane growth significantly reduces waste.

The study results show that CHES-grown sapphire is capable of production-level performance, says the firm. As the HB-LED market expands, CHES provides sapphire growers with advantages including higher yield, a scalable technology, and better LED chip performance, it adds. ARC offers CHES furnaces and a variety of support services for crystal growth companies seeking addressing the HB-LED sector.