CST Global Adds InP Epitaxial Overgrowth to Production

Chip and component developer CST Global Ltd. has added in-house indium phosphide (InP) epitaxial overgrowth capability to its foundry production services.

The process is critical to the manufacture of high-volume, distributed feedback (DFB) lasers used in worldwide, passive optical network (PON) markets. The successful implementation of this process is the result of a CST Global’s “focused investment” over the last year of approximately £500,000 ($655,000).

“Adding InP epitaxial overgrowth to our foundry capability brings a critical production process in-house, where previously it was outsourced,” said Euan Livingston, vice president of sales and marketing at CST Global. “It not only mitigates production bottlenecks, but also reduces DFB laser production times.”

InP epitaxy is deposited using a vapor-phase epitaxy process applied by CST Global’s commercial metal organic chemical vapor deposition reactor.

“Over the past year, we have significantly increased the capacity of our factory in Blantyre, Scotland, to meet the high demand for DFB lasers used in PON markets,” Livingston said. “Epitaxial overgrowth is a challenging process to master. We recognize that the combined expertise of our development and operations teams has been essential to the successful introduction of this new process.”

CST Global is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sivers IMA Holdings AB. Both entities develop, manufacture, and sell chips, components, modules, and subsystems based on proprietary semiconductor technology.