March 14th, 2012
In a celebratory event held March 15, SAFC Hitech officially opened the latest addition to its global manufacturing footprint, a 270,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan that provides significant capacity increases for the high-volume manufacturing of high-quality TMG, TEG and TMI precursors for HBLED applications. The site will also produce ALD and CVD precursors for the silicon semiconductor market and offer regional transfilling capability and technical service and support.
The opening of the new Kaohsiung facility reinforces Taiwan as a vital strategic regional hub from which to leverage SAFC Hitech’s existing proprietary knowledge and capabilities as a leading provider of ultra-high purity metalorganic and silicon precursors for thin film deposition production processes. The opening of the new facility follows the March 2010 production expansion for TMG at SAFC Hitech’s Bromborough, UK manufacturing site.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 3rd, 2011
Congratulations to SAFC Hitech Research Chemist Sarah Hindley who recently won first prize for the oral presentation of ‘Metal Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition of Vertically-Aligned ZnO Nanowires using Oxygen Adducts’ at the EuroCVD18 Conference, which took place 
in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland from the 4th – 9th September 2011.
The presentation of a summary of an original paper, authored by Sarah and A. C. Jones, S. Ashraf, J. Bacsa, A. Steiner, P. R. Chalker, P. Beahan, P. A. Williams, R. Odedra, won Sarah a first prize of 300€.
The presentation looks at Zinc Nanowires and how better results can be achieved in terms of the severe pre-reaction (particulates, poor composition control, poor morphology) using conventional MOCVD methods by using new, less reactive ZnO precursors. It then goes on to look at precursor (Me2Zn.L) design, structure and processing via Liquid Injection CVD. The summary findings indicated that:
- Me2Zn.L allow ZnO nanowire growth on Si(111) substrates at ~500oC in the absence of a seed layer
- Me2Zn.L adducts controls initial reaction with O2 via the formation of a gas phase species [MeZn(OMe).(L)]
- MeZn(OMe) is the reactive surface species control ZnO nanowire growth kinetics
You can download Sarah’s presentation here.
September 23rd, 2011
In this article published this month in Wiley’s peer review journal, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a team made up of Dr. J. Bacsa, Prof. A. C. Jones and Dr. A. Steiner of the Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool; Dr. F. Hanke and Dr. G. R. Darling of the Surface Science Research Centre, University of Liverpool, Sarah Hindley and Raj Odedra of SAFC Hitech examine Dimethylzinc and diethylzinc compounds, which were amoung the first organometallic compounds ever synthesised by Frankland in the mid-ninteenth century.
Read the rest of this entry »
September 14th, 2011
In the September 2011 issue of the UK’s Speciality Chemicals magazine, SAFC Hitech’s Geoff Irvine and Xioahong Chen talk about the electronic chemicals market, and how materials innovation continues to enable to microelectronics market overcome new challenges, such as the migration to new materials within the semi space.
The article also focuses in on the importance of supply chain integrity, which was brought into sharp focus by the tragic events in Japan in March, when the earthquake and tsunami severely impacted the Japanese electronics supply chain. Finally, the article looks at strategic partnership0s and investments, and in particular where SAFC Hitech has worked to bring additional capacity online to service current and future needs in key areas.
You can read the full article on pages 12 and 13 of Speciality Chemicals here.
August 15th, 2011
Following on from the SAFC hi post (see below) last week about the EE Times item in which R. Colin Johnson discusses Rare Earth materials, potential monopolies of supply and potential solutions to negate this situation, the latest issue of Material Matters, the quarterly periodical from our colleagues at Aldrich Materials Science, focuses on the fascinating subject of Rare Earth Elements (REE), currently a very hot topic of discussion in the materials and electronics industries as demand increases and solutions are being sought to meet this. REEs have become an essential component driving modern technology and are used in an increasing number of applications, for example, data storage devices, lasers, phosphors for advanced displays, catalysts, permanent magnets, and petroleum refining. In addition, they are fundamental in enabling a variety of emerging technologies, including hybrid electric vehicles and miniaturized devices and electronics.
Read the rest of this entry »
