HexaTech Brings 100 mm Aluminum Nitride Substrates to Market, Setting Sights on 150 mm

HexaTech, Inc. has moved its largest aluminum nitride substrate format into commercial production, announcing the immediate availability of a 100 mm diameter single crystal AlN product. The Morrisville, North Carolina-based manufacturer positions the release as a direct extension of the three-inch diameter substrate launch it announced earlier this year, and as a step toward even larger formats.

The company describes itself as the world's leading commercial supplier of single crystal AlN substrates grown by physical vapor transport (PVT). With the new format, HexaTech is arguing that performance, production scale and customer value can advance together rather than trading off against one another.

Scaling Up From Three Inches

A Development Program Two Decades in the Making

The jump to 100 mm did not arrive overnight. CEO John Goehrke framed the release as the payoff from a long-running, deliberately focused effort backed by both public and private investment over the previous 20 years, alongside the work of the HexaTech team.

That framing matters for how the announcement should be read. HexaTech is not presenting 100 mm as an endpoint but as a platform from which further diameter scaling becomes feasible. The explicit reference to 150 mm gives customers and investors a visible roadmap target, even as the company stops short of attaching a timeline to it.

Quality Claims Carry Over

Dr. Rafael Dalmau, HexaTech's Manager of Research and Development, tied the new format to the company's existing reputation for material quality rather than treating size as a standalone achievement.

The implication is that enlarging the substrate did not come at the expense of the structural and surface characteristics that device makers depend on. For compound semiconductor materials, that distinction is central: a larger wafer is only useful if epitaxial growth and device fabrication yields hold up across the expanded area.

Why 100 mm Matters Commercially

Lower Cost per Unit Area

Gregory Mills, HexaTech's VP of Business Development, placed the launch squarely in commercial terms, describing it as a response to the requirements of the company's optoelectronic and high-power radio frequency customers.

The economics of substrate manufacturing are heavily driven by usable area per wafer. Moving to a larger diameter allows more devices per wafer and better amortization of processing steps, which is what Mills is pointing to when he speaks of lowering the price-per-unit-area threshold. His mention of “ease of fabrication line insertion” signals that the format is intended to slot into existing production environments rather than require bespoke handling.

A Portfolio Rather Than a Single Product

HexaTech is not retiring its smaller formats. The company says its full range of 2-inch, 3-inch and 100 mm diameter products is available now with standard lead times, letting customers choose the substrate size that fits their current process maturity. That portfolio approach is notable for an emerging material category, where device makers may still be prototyping on smaller wafers while planning volume production on larger ones.

The Application Map for AlN

AlN substrates sit at the foundation of several demanding device categories, and HexaTech's own description of its market spans both optoelectronics and power electronics:

• Long-life UV-C light emitting diodes for disinfection applications
• Deep UV lasers for biological threat detection
• High voltage switching devices for efficient power conversion
• RF components for satellite communications

These applications share a common thread: each places extreme demands on material quality, whether through high power densities, short wavelengths or reliability requirements. UV-C disinfection and biological threat detection in particular depend on deep ultraviolet performance, a regime where AlN's wide bandgap properties are directly relevant.

Corporate Backing and History

HexaTech is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stanley Electric of Tokyo, Japan. Stanley Electric describes itself as a global manufacturer of automotive equipment and electronic components built on optical technologies, with manufacturing at its core and investments in group companies worldwide producing automotive lamps and LEDs across ultraviolet, visible and infrared ranges.

The parent relationship gives HexaTech access to a corporate owner with deep roots in light-based technologies, which aligns with the UV LED and laser portions of the AlN application map. HexaTech was founded in 2001 and says its team has worked through complex materials science and engineering challenges to commercialize high quality bulk AlN for volume production.

What to Watch

The announcement's significance rests on a straightforward proposition: larger AlN substrates at lower cost per unit area could accelerate the transition of UV-C, power switching and RF devices from specialized production toward broader commercialization. HexaTech's stated ambition to reach 150 mm and beyond, and to narrow the gap with other wide bandgap materials, sets the next benchmark to track. Whether the 100 mm format translates into measurable device-maker adoption will depend on fabrication yields and qualification cycles that the company has not detailed publicly.