albemarle interview
Albemarle amplifies the bubbler brigade
As a suppler of metal organic raw materials to companies providing MOCVD precursors,Albemarle had been quietly serving our industry for many years. Now the multi-national chemicals specialist is coming into full view by launching its PureGrowth line,a move designed to fulfil the hike in demand for materials for LED manufacturing. Richard Stevenson quizzes Albemarle’s Vice President, Performance Catalyst Solutions,Amy Motto, and the company Business Development Manager, Electronic Materials, Al Knight, about this venture.
Q
Why does the III-V industry need another supplier of metal organic precursors?
AMWe got into this because the market pulled us. There was a huge shortage in the market in 2009 and
2010. Chipmakers could not get enough high-purity products to keep their plants running. We were getting calls from companies making LED chips begging us as a leading organo-metallic supplier to jump into this market.
We were very familiar with these materials because we have such a long history here – we’ve actually been supplying most of the high-purity metal-organic producers with organo-metallic precursors. But until fairly recently it was never a business that we were interested in jumping into because it was very small volume.
When we started looking at growth data we felt that there were only three major producers at that time. They were not announcing capacity as fast as the market needed. So we thought that this was a naturally step for us, given our global footprint, our background in organo-metallics and the experience we have in high- purity products in other product lines.
Q
What have you done to underpin your launch of metal organic bubblers?
AMI would say two things: We’ve added significant staffing and significant capital. We’ve hired some
experts in the industry and we have really staffed up our sales team and our R&D team to make sure that we enter this market quickly, appropriately and get off the ground.
We have also invested a significant amount of capital since 2010 to make sure that we do this correctly: That we have all the right analytical tools; all the right packaging tools; and the right manufacturing assets to make sure that we have the best-quality, best repeatability process on the market.
We don’t plan for any additional staffing, but we do continue to foresee some significant capital being spent over the next few years.
Q
How do the challenges of supplying metal organics compare to those faced by an LED chipmaker?
AMI think it is a little bit more straightforward for LED manufacturers, because they buy turn-key manufacturing
facilities. They do need experienced engineers and
Amy Motto is Albemarle’s Vice President, Performance Catalyst Solutions
Albermarle’s bubblers are initially available in 1.2 litre and 4 litre sizes,but there are
plans in place to increase this range soon
November/December 2011
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212 |
Page 213 |
Page 214 |
Page 215 |
Page 216 |
Page 217 |
Page 218 |
Page 219 |
Page 220 |
Page 221 |
Page 222 |
Page 223 |
Page 224 |
Page 225 |
Page 226 |
Page 227 |
Page 228 |
Page 229 |
Page 230 |
Page 231 |
Page 232 |
Page 233 |
Page 234 |
Page 235 |
Page 236 |
Page 237 |
Page 238 |
Page 239 |
Page 240 |
Page 241 |
Page 242 |
Page 243 |
Page 244 |
Page 245 |
Page 246 |
Page 247 |
Page 248 |
Page 249 |
Page 250 |
Page 251 |
Page 252 |
Page 253 |
Page 254 |
Page 255