plasma etch systems now being used for these applications

The company is planning to boost sales in its LED lighting business to about ￥15 billion, which is double the current level, in fiscal 2010. Of the ￥15 billion, domestic sales account for about ￥10 billion and overseas sales constitute the remaining ￥5 billion.Moreover, Panasonic Electric Works is aiming at ￥30 billion sales from the entire led high bay light business in fiscal 2012. Meanwhile, it intends to increase the ratio of its LED business to 10% of its overall sales, about five times the current ratio, in fiscal 2012. To meet this goal, the company will strengthen its cost competitiveness by, for example, cutting costs of LED chip procurement.

Recently, Tegal Corporation, a leading designer and manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems used in the production of LEDs, MEMS, integrated circuits, and nanotechnology devices, announced that it received another follow-on order for an additional Tegal 901ACS unit from a leading opto-semiconductor / LED manufacturer.The new 901ACS system will support the customer’s capacity expansion for lighting and optical sensor device production, and adds to the customer’s existing installed base of Tegal 900ACS Series plasma etch systems now being used for these applications.

John Almerico, Marketing Director, Etch Products, Tegal Corporation, said the Tegal 900ACS tool, with its single-wafer etch configuration, brings improved manufacturing precision to the task of fabricating LEDs. Improved manufacturing precision translates as better process reproducibility, better manufacturing reproducibility, higher device yields, and lower operating costs for the plasma etch applications in their customer’s fabs. That’s an unbeatable value proposition, into which their customer has readily, and repeatedly, bought.providing reliable and cost-effective support for a wide range of plasma etch processes. The Tegal 900ACS Series is optimized for pad, zero layer, non-selective nitride, backside, and led flood light etching, as well as for photoresist descum, oxide, nitride, poly, and compound materials applications for HB-LED, Optoelectronic, TFH, and MEMS device fabrication. Among their other features, the Tegal 900ACS and 980ACS Series platforms incorporate a production-proven transport system that can robustly accommodate the 75 mm to 200 mm round, square or rectangular substrates found in the opto, TFH, and MEMS markets.