TABLE OF CONTENTS The demand for production capable MBE equipment has developed naturally from device demand. Devices which were spawned in the research lab have become desirable and mass producible. The MBE equipment required to demonstrate such devices is considerably different from that needed to produce it in volume. Whereas, second generation MBE machines were designed to offer maximum versatility, a production machine can be defined more specifically since a particular material system or device is sought. The emphasis shifts from configurational flexibility to reliability, both of the process and the hardware. Production equipment, based on an established process, must maintain that process wafer-to-wafer. The justification for any piece of production equipment is a low ratio of the cost per device to the value added per device. Step yield, maintenance costs and downtime are contributors to the cost per device.
Some devices allow such a value added that MBE is without question the process of choice. In cases where the device structure relaxes process constraints, other approaches such as MOCVD may be competitive or superior to MBE on a cost per device basis. Current efforts among MBE equipment vendors are focused on increasing wafer throughhput and reducing system downtime and capital costs. At present, the major markets are for AlGaAs/GaAs analog (microwave) and digital devices. The next larger markets are for other III-V materials for microwave and optoelectronic devices. Many of the devices in these markets require sophisticated processing and have a high added value. Second generation...
