GT Advanced Technologies Inc fka GTAT

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The link between GT and Crystal Systems was not an "arms length" relationship. The CTO of Crystal Systems and the CEO of GT went to grad school together at SUNY I recall. GT licenced HEM technology from them for Silicon applications which morphed to the GT DSS process for Silicon ingots for PV applications

Don't know if Apple was a consideration in 2010....2011 time frame.
CS had maybe 12 or 15 furnaces of various designs and age for growing sapphire for industrial applications...optics, military, R & D, lasers, LED.

GT put in 50 +/- of CS's latest design also for making sapphire for other customers to turn into end items. The plan was to sell furnaces using the Silicon model but with the added credibility of also being a sapphire manufacturer. CS supplied cores and blanks to customers but made few if any "end items"

There was a lot of Sapphire related activity in 2012 in Salem and Merrimack (MMK) that seemed to be disproportionate to any forecast. It may have been driven by backroom talks with Apple but I never heard "Apple" mentioned in 2012 . All activity was supposedly to help the existing customer base get better pricing and availability for Alumina and Crucibles and have GT do the qualification for those items. LED substrates was the focus.

The goal was to have qualified suppliers for well in excess of 100% or the greatest projected demand...Alumima and Crucibles.