Agnitron
The unique MOCVD Practitioner

Agnitron positions itself as an MOCVD technology practitioner that caters to both traditional, wide bandgap & cutting-edge semiconductor R&D and as well as traditional PV and optoelectronic foundry production needs.

“Half of our clean room space is dedicated to running MOCVD equipment and processes that are on par with and supporting our clients’ research. We supply the customers with the process ‘recipes’ that we come up with, streamlining the development of advanced semiconductor material, device technologies, and products,” says Andrei Osinsky, CEO, Agnitron.

Agnitron’s R&D laboratory is dedicated to developing MOCVD components and serving clients in growing custom epitaxial structures of Ga2O3, GaN, and related alloys. Many of its clients, including government research labs, have benefited by utilizing Agnitron’s scientists and engineers to help solve problems and to help them achieve their desired outcomes of their semiconductor research and development projects. This has cemented Agnitron’s status as an industrial partner with the Labs. For any client Agnitron’s process engineers work hand-inhand with the capable engineering staff to ensure our production customers benefit from operational learnings of the equipment operating in our lab environment.

The role of MOCVD systems and processes has become absolutely necessary for today’s semiconductor industry and, subsequently, the entire electronics supply chain, where precision film deposition of the highest purity materials delivered with most accurate controls is a sought-after capability.

The higher cost factor and operational complexities associated with MOCVD systems, however, have hurdled their accessibility in academia and R&D. The market longs for efficient MOCVD systems that can exhibit flexibility for running various gases or growing different materials within the same system. Agnitron addresses these imperatives by building modular systems that enable its customers to ‘swap’ a part or add a source material to develop novel semiconductor compound innovations.

In addition to custom MOCVD systems, the series of MOCVD systems in Agnitron’s portfolio tick the boxes of customizability, compactness, modularity, and configurability for semiconductor R&D and production needs. The company also offers the Imperium-MOCVD, a Windows OS-based SCADA offering, to control any PLC-controlled equipment and processes in real-time and display system configurations and operations. The solution serves as a direct replacement for Legacy Emcore, Veeco, Thomas Swan, Aixtron, TNSC, and Structured Material Inc. (SMI) OEM control software and automation solution. Extending the life of legacy semiconductor systems now with increased productivity and support. It is an ideal replacement for control software and automation no longer supported by OEM. The power of Imperium is multi-faceted; it allows the customer to import and run their original recipes into Imperium, gives the customer the control and ability to configure the software not provided by legacy OEM MOCVD suppliers. In addition, for enhanced growth capability, Agnitron offers the AgniTemp pyrometer technology (Emissivity Compensated Pyrometry-ECP) and software for accurate wafer temperature monitoring and control. Going the extra mile for budget-sensitive customers, the company also refurbishes MOCVD systems. To date, Agnitron has replaced more than 100 control systems on legacy tools and refurbished dozens of tools giving them a renewed existence of productivity.

With its multi-faceted value proposition, Agnitron has had great success over the last 10 years winning contracts for sought-after initiatives for advanced material research and developments building MOCVD and other hardware for the Navy, Air Force, and Army’s labs through SBIR programs as well delivering production tools to customers supplying commercial electronic and optoelectronic components worldwide. The company continues to be commended for its technological innovations and customer-centricity by clients in academia, R&D, and semiconductor production.

“We want to be on the innovation side as much as our customers do in these fields,” says Osinsky.

Agnitron continues its investment in technologies and talent to push innovation in the semiconductor industry whether it’s operating cutting-edge MOCVD systems in-house or embracing a systems-building approach that democratizes MOCVD technology. The company walks the talk in terms of enabling semiconductor research and development every day.