Silicon may be the compound that made electronics famous, but the rising star on the scene is sapphire and Rubicon Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: RBCN) is the new leading light. Founded in 2000 and public only since Nov. 20, this Franklin Park, Ill.-based small cap is in the interesting business of growing sapphires for electronic and electro-optical circuits.

Sapphire has some great qualities that can be used in conjunction with silicon circuitry. A pure sapphire is crystal clear, made from aluminum oxide. It can be grown and cut into wafers, much the way silicon wafers are made, and has different chemical, electrical and physical properties when cut in different orientations. In different configurations, the wafers are used to make light-emitting diodes (LEDs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and blue laser diodes. Silicon circuitry can be laid on top of sapphire wafers (silicon-on-sapphire, or SOS) for electro-optical chips.

The Russian government began developing techniques years ago for growing sapphire crystals to use in military and aerospace applications. Rubicon, whose chief scientist is Russian, has refined those techniques into a proprietary process that allows it to create the largest and purest sapphire wafers on the market.

Rubicon can make crystals with fewer than 100 defects per square centimeter, compared to defect rates of 5,000 to 100,000 defects per centimeter with other manufacturing methods. It is the only manufacturer that can reliably make six-inch diameter wafers, while others are still stuck at two inches and four inches, and is expected to start producing eight-inch wafers within 18 months. Just as in silicon wafers, the larger sizes sell at higher margins but reduce the final chip costs dramatically.

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