In 1999, Epitaxial Products International merged with Pennsylvania-based Quantum Epitaxial Designs (QED) to form IQE.[2] QED was founded by Tom Hierl.[3]
In 2000, the company formed a new, wholly owned subsidiary company specialising in silicon based epitaxy. IQE Silicon was established in a new facility adjacent to the group's headquarters and European manufacturing base in Cardiff, Wales, UK. The new subsidiary used chemical vapor deposition (CVD) tools to produce silicon and germanium epitaxial wafers for enhanced silicon processing performance, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology applications.[4]
In 2006, the Group acquired the Electronic Materials Division from Emcore, providing IQE with its second US operation based in Somerset, NJ. This acquisition added further MOCVD capacity and complementary radio frequency (RF) products including heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) and bipolar field-effect transistors (BiFETs).[6]
Also in 2006, the group made a further acquisition in the form of Singapore based MBET technologies which provided the group with complete multi-site, multi-technology and multi-product capabilities to form the world's largest independent contract manufacturer of epitaxial wafers.[7]
In 2009 the group added new free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) substrate capability with the acquisition of NanoGaN, a spin out start-up from the University of Bath.[8][9]
The company made a stock exchange announcement on 12 November 2018 that shipments of its product would be materially reduced, also materially affecting profitability, causing the share price to plunge.[11]
The joint venture CSDC was acquired by IQE in October 2019. IQE had held 51% of shares through MBE Technologies at the time it was formed in March 2015.[12][13]