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April 28, 2008...The Nanotechnology Initiative of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), announced the five winners of a special $15-million nanotechnology research funding competition. Each proposed project will get $3 million in funding. Two of the five winners will develop new solar technology.
Researchers from the Universite de Sherbrooke and the University of Ottawa will work with scientists and engineers from the NRC Institute for Microstructural Sciences (NRC-IMS) and the NRC Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC), in Ottawa to use quantum dots to produce more efficient concentrator solar cells. Researchers from Universite de Laval, Queen's University, the University of Toronto and Simon Fraser University will work with scientists and engineers from the NRC Institute for Microstructural Sciences (NRC-IMS), the NRC Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology (NRC-ICPET) and the NRC Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences (NRC-SIMS) in Ottawa will use novel polymeric nano-composite semiconductor materials to produce more efficient solar cells.
"Canada already has considerable expertise in the field of nanotechnology, and the government is ensuring that our country takes its place among the most innovative nations of the world,” said Mr. Galipeau, Royal Galipeau, Member of Parliament for Ottawa-Orleans and Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole House. National Research Council Canada-NRC News Release
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Brighter Lasers for Tomorrow's Technologies
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 28, 2008...Twenty-two of Europe's top research teams have joined forces to develop new generation high brightness lasers. The research teams come from industry, internationally recognized research laboratories, and leading academic institutions. Funding of €16.25m (with €9.7m from the European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme) will go towards the project called WWW.BRIGHTER.EU, which runs until September 2009. The project name stands for 'World Wide Welfare: High-Brightness Semiconductor Lasers for Generic Use'.
The researchers expect that the new high brightness lasers will eventually transform the fields of healthcare, communications, and entertainment.
Ultimately the collaboration hopes to make lasers smaller, brighter, more efficient, and cheaper in an extended range of colors (wavelengths). Additionally, they hope to couple more light power into smaller diameter optical fibers. Partners from 10 European countries will work together on the project that builds upon the successful WWW.BRIGHT.EU project, which was completed in 2006. Two leading universities represent the UK in the BRIGHTER Consortium: The University of Nottingham and the University of Cambridge.
Project coordinator, Michel Krakowski of Alcatel-Thales III-V Lab in France, said, “There are huge markets for laser diode technology. There are a lot of applications that currently are not possible to address without high-powered diode lasers, either because of cost, colour or portability. The goal of this project is to develop new lasers with increased power and brightness. It's about how tightly we can focus the beam.”
WWW.BRIGHTER.EU News Release IBM, Matheson TriGas, and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Partner on Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 28, 2008...IBM, Matheson Tri-Gas/ Taiyo Nippon Sanso are collaborating on the development of manufacturing materials and processes for CMOS at 32nm and under. Matheson Tri-Gas and its parent company, Taiyo Nippon Sanso hope to research and develop new high purity gas molecules and new delivery systems for the manufacturing of atomic-scale semiconductors.
IBM will add its CMOS research capabilities to the collaboration. “Taiyo Nippon Sanso Group including Matheson Tri-Gas' cutting-edge source gases and advanced purification equipment, when integrated with IBM's state-of-the-art CMOS research capabilities, enables both companies to accelerate the pace of semiconductor innovation,” said Bernie Meyerson, Vice President Strategic Alliances and Chief Technical Officer for IBM Systems & Technology Group.
"This relationship with IBM will enable the Taiyo Nippon Sanso Group to position itself as a leading edge material supplier in the semiconductor material market beyond 32nm," said Mike Hara, Senior Managing Director of Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation. Matheson Tri-Gas News Release
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Researchers Seek Long-Wavelength Lasers at One-Tenth the CostApril 28, 2008...Researchers at Chuo University have developed technology that they claim could cut the cost of manufacturing crystals for high-output long-wavelength lasers by up to 90 percent, according to an article in Nikkei Net.
The researchers found that gallium arsenide (GaAs) can transform laser light into the relatively long wavelength of 5-20 microns. However, the crystal orientation must be optimized to produce a high-output laser.
Associate professor Ichiro Shoji led the research team. They reportedly layered GaAs crystals 100 microns thick in a vacuum at room temperature using argon particles to blow off the oxide film covering the surface of the crystals. The researcher were able to use this method put together crystals with clean surfaces with no gap in between, the article indicated.
A laser with a 1.06 micron wavelength was exposed to the clean surfaced crystals, and the result was an output wavelength of 10 microns.
Thus far, the research team has only managed to create six layers of crystals in this manner. The team hopes to increase the crystal thickness to a practical level to commercialize the technology in about three years for use in semiconductor processing and materials analysis.
The researchers contend that if the technology can be made commercially feasible, it could produce lasers long wavelength lasers at one-tenth of the cost, the article indicated. LED Lighting Drives Revenue Growth at Cree for Q3 of Fiscal 2008
LIGHTimes StaffApril 23, 2008...Cree reports that its revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 are up 38 percent compared to the same period a year ago and up 5 percent compared to the previous quarter.
Cree’s revenues for the quarter rose from $90.3 million in Q3 of fiscal 2007 to $125 million in Q3 of fiscal 2008. However, Cree reported that its net income of $5.7 million for the third fiscal quarter of 2008 went down compared to the same quarter of 2007 when it was $21.1 million. During the quarter Cree acquired LED Lighting Fixtures Inc. Also, Austin, TX, and the Tianjin Economic Development Area (TEDA) in China joined Cree’s LED City initiative.
“Cree’s strategy to drive revenue growth by focusing on LED lighting continued to pay dividends in Q3, as we delivered financial performance that was in line with our previously announced
guidance,” stated Chuck Swoboda, Cree Chairman and CEO. “Revenue growth was led by
higher sales of LED components, which exceeded sales of LED chips for the first time. In
addition, we took another bold step in leading the LED lighting revolution with our acquisition of
LED Lighting Fixtures, which positions us even better to drive the adoption of LED lighting going
forward. For Q4, we target growth from XLamp® LEDs, high-brightness LED components and
our new LED lighting solutions, all of which are benefitting from the rising demand for energy efficient LED lighting.”
Cree is reportedly targeting revenues of $129 million to $133 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. Cree Financial Results News Release BeamExpress Secures $1.3 Million in First Round of Investment
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 23, 2008...BeamExpress SA, a laser technology company based in Lausanne, Switzerland reports having secured a first round investment of $1.3M with I-Source (France). BeamExpress says that the investment proceeds will be used to expand the team and move from prototype to series production. Jean-Claude Charlier and Prof. Eli Kapon launched BeamExpress SA as a Spin-off of BeamExpress Inc. when it was sold to NeoPhotonics Inc. in 2006. At that time, the vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) technology was transfered to the newly formed company headquartered in Lausanne.
In cooperation with EPFL, the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne, BeamExpress SA designs and manufactures high-speed long-wavelength lasers with extremely low power consumption. These lasers are used for next generation high-speed computing and communication applications. The company notes that the market is changing with the rapid adoption of silicon photonics, which now require light sources emitting in the long-wavelength range (1200nm up to 1600nm). BeamExpress’ VCSEL technology is reportedly ideal for these applications.
“The secret of our VCSEL high performance, lies in our “Localized wafer fusion” technology which makes possible the use of InP- and GaAs-based materials giving high power, single mode laser beam with narrow line width," commented Professor Eli Kapon, Co-founder and Chief Scientist of BeamExpress and Director of the Laboratory of Physics of Nanostructures. Beam Express SA News Release IXYS Ranked Higher On Mercury News ‘Silicon Valley 150’
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 23, 2008...IXYS Corporation of Milpitas, California USA, announced that it was recently ranked # 94 in The San Jose Mercury News "Silicon Valley 150". The Mercury News produces an annual listing of the top 150 public companies, headquartered in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, southern San Mateo, and southern Alameda counties. The companies are ranked on the basis of worldwide revenues for the most recent available four quarters. IXYS reports that it has moved up six places in the rankings. For the one-year period ending December 31, 2007, IXYS earned $299.2 million in revenue, an 8% increase over calendar year 2006. As oil prices have increased, the demand for power conversion efficiency, especially in wind and solar power, has increased. For this reason, IXYS is thriving. IXYS focuses on providing power semiconductors for equipment used in harnessing wind and solar power for conversion to the U.S. electrical power grid.
"According to recent reports, Silicon Valley's tech companies had a stellar 2007, setting records in sales and profits. It is against this competitive backdrop that IXYS once again outperformed," commented Dr. Nathan Zommer, CEO of IXYS. "We continue to develop new technologies to address the need for energy efficiency; we expect that these R&D efforts will lead to future sustainable growth of our revenues and profits. We are equally pleased in seeing that we are ranked # 86 based on profits, and # 84 based on our profit margins among the leading companies of Silicon Valley." Company News Release Nitronex and Nujira Jointly Develop High Efficiency WiMax Power Amplifier
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 23, 2008...UK-based Nujira and Nitronex of Durham, North Carolina USA, are collaborating to create a power amplifier (PA) reference design for WiMax basestations Nujira revealed that it delivers over 45 percent efficiency using GaN devices and Nujura’s High Accuracy Tracking (HAT) technology. Nujira reports that in its collaboration with Nitronex, the companies were able to realize over 44dBm of linear power with 45 efficiency at a linearity of -55dBC using a 4 channel WCDMA waveform and conventional DPD (Digital Pre-Distortion) techniques. Nujira noted that the results were achieved using production ready devices from both companies. Nujira further reported that this same solution achieved 43.2dBm of linear power with 43percent efficiency under a demanding WiMAX waveform with 20MHz video bandwidth and 8.2dB PAR.
“Nitronex believes that GaN devices will most clearly establish their value when combined with advanced power amplifier techniques such as Nujira’s HAT technology,” said Chris Rauh, VP of marketing and sales at Nitronex.
Nujira VP strategy & marketing Julian Hildersley added, “Nujira HAT envelope tracking technology can greatly enhance the efficiency of power amplifiers. ... The same Power Modulator module can equally well be applied to WiMax, WCDMA or even DVB and other transmission. Our reference design work with Nitronex very effectively demonstrates how well our technology works in a real circuit.” Nujira News Release
HelioVolt Taps Former DuPont Executive to be CTO
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 21, 2008...Austin, Texas-based thin film solar technology firm, HelioVolt, has hired former DuPont executive, Dr. Louay Eldada as the company’s new chief technology officer (CTO). Dr. Eldada will direct strategic technology planning and development of HelioVolt’s advanced thin film solar energy products in the new position. HelioVolt is commercializing a suite of high performance copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) photovoltaic products based on the company’s rapid FASST™ manufacturing process. According to HelioVolt, the proprietary process can be used to print high efficiency, low-cost photovoltaic materials for solar panels, integrated systems, and solar-enabled building products including architectural glass, and roofing tiles. HelioVolt says that Dr. Eldada will manage both internal and collaborative technology development in his new position.
For the past five yours Eldada was an executive at Dupont. Prior to that, Dr. Eldada founded and managed Telephotonics Inc., which was later acquired by DuPont. Dr. Eldada also served at Honeywell Inc. (formerly AlliedSignal Inc.) where he started the Telecom Photonics business unit and then directed its R&D branch. Corning Inc. acquired the successful group, and Dr. Eldada continued to manage technical development.
“Renewable energy has been a lifelong passion of mine. I’m looking forward to applying my experience in defining technology roadmaps and achieving those strategic targets to my new role at HelioVolt, a company as dynamic and promising as the growing solar energy market it intends to help reshape,” said Dr. Eldada.
HelioVolt News Release Lumilog Acquired by Saint-Gobain
CompoundSemi News StaffApril 21, 2008...The high performance materials division of Saint-Gobain Group of France, has acquired Lumilog, a developer and producer of gallium nitride (GaN) wafers. Saint Gobain acquired Lumilog from its founders and investors, Banexi Ventures Partners, Emertec Gestion, Sophia Euro Lab SAS and TechFund Capital on April 1, 2008. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The Saint Gobain Group has four business divisions and employs some 200,000 people around the world. GaN is a critical material for Blu-ray laser diodes and advanced LEDs.
Lumilog reported a sales volume of about €2 million (about US $3.2 million) for 2007. Saint Gobain News Release Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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