Rubicon Technology, a manufacturer of sapphire substrates and devices for the RFIC, LED, optical and semiconductor industries, declared two crucial milestones, which will enable its Penang-based modern production plant to commence bulk manufacture of 6 and 8” polished sapphire wafers.
6” wafers manufactured by the new facility in Penang, Malaysia have been qualified by a key client. The plant has also been successfully audited for the ISO certification. These two milestones have enabled bulk manufacture of the 6” polished wafers that are needed in large quantities as LED chip producers move to substrates of larger diameters to achieve better efficiencies. The plant also has the ability to polish and produce 8” wafers in R&D quantities to customers
Rubicon’s clients require outstanding and reliable quality of products and entails vendors to realize and maintain international quality standards set up by the ISO. The plant recently cleared the rigorous ISO audit with zero findings and will be awarded the ISO 9001: 2008 certifications that will be issued after the registrar’s final review. In the semiconductor industry, a common practice followed is re-qualification of products on establishment of a new manufacturing plant. Rubicon’s products were in the re-qualification process with several customers and have now qualified with a key customer. Products will be successfully qualified if the LED chips are effectively produced in the new plant and then are rigorously tested in different applications.