Sawyer’s lithium tantalate (LT) wafer production combines high quality wafer fabrication with the cost advantages of Chinese boule growth to add attractively priced LT wafers to the quartz wafers already in our SAW product line.  Tantalate boule production is located in Shanghai, PRC and wafer fabrication is based in Conroe, Texas (near Houston).  We modified the same high volume semiconductor based production line previously installed for quartz to the processing of LT for SAW wafer applications.

We offer LT wafers with typical specifications

•  3-inch or 100-mm diameter

• 0.25 – 0.50 mm thickness (thinner wafers under development)

• 36^o, 42^o and X-cut orientations

• fine-lapped back side

• standard “white” wafers and “black” wafers with reduced pyroelectricity

Sawyer can accommodate a wide range of Curie temperature specifications (600^oC – 610^oC) as well as non-standard orientations and smaller diameter wafers.  Also the degree to which the pyroelectric effect is reduced in “black” LT can be varied to meet customer-specific needs.  Wafers in the 0.18 – 0.20 mm thickness range and 150-mm diameter wafers are under development.