Plessey returns to the limelight with unique silicon process

2018-06-28 09:38:27 17

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Plymouth-based Plessey is the UK’s only LED maker, and the only LED maker in the world commercially making LEDs on silicon substrates.

The driving force behind this seemingly quintessential British semiconductor firm is actually a Canadian, Michael LeGoff, who a decade ago resurrected the Plessey name using ex-Plessey resources (see history box, below).

The firm’s headquarters and three semiconductor manufacturing cleanrooms are now on one site, covering 13 acres at Roborough on the outskirts of Plymouth, plus, it owns 15 acres of adjacent land, on to which it could expand.

Within those cleanrooms, it has two MOCVD reactors for making 6-inch GaN-on-silicon LED wafers – with space prepared for two more. Alongside LEDs, its fabs are capable of making CMOS ICs, bipolar ICs and discrete semiconductors.