Optogan order Aixtron equipment for St.Petersburg facility

Dr. Maxim Odnoblyudov, General Manager and CEO of Optogan Group, comments, "Our main consideration for reactor selection was the scalability of the Close Coupled Showerhead process technology. We were impressed with the data from Aixtron on the CRIUS family of MOCVD systems. It reassured us that moving up to the CRIUS II will be straightforward for us. This system will be a very important part of our plan to add more capacity for the new high performance, cost-competitive products demanded by our customers." Dr. Frank Schulte, Vice President Aixtron Europe, adds: "This is a very special announcement for Aixtron since it is the first CRIUS II order from a European customer. It is particularly satisfying that it is the Optogan Group, one of the main players on the emerging and fast growing Russian market. Optogan has been using our MOCVD reactors for several years and we look forward to bringing onstream this valuable addition to their capabilities." Founded in Finland in 2004 by the team of Russian scientists from the world-renowned Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Optogan is a vertically integrated producer of high brightness LEDs for various global applications including solid state lighting market. In July 2009, Optogan began operations in Russia planning to advance the development of its unique products and to ramp up high-volume manufacturing capabilities. In May 2010, the Optogan Group acquired an industrial facility and infrastructure of EMS-provider Elcoteq in St. Petersburg where new LED production lines are being set up. It plans to launch the first production line with the capacity of 30 m LEDs a month in fall 2010.