Raytheon Led Team Demonstrates CS on Silicon Growth Technique
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 14, 2008...A team of researchers led by Raytheon based in Tewksbury, Massachusetts USA, reported the successful demonstration of growing semiconductor compounds directly on silicon. The demonstration of the novel technique is part of a $6.5 million contract awarded by the Office of Naval Research and funded through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Raytheon points out that the demonstration is a critical building block contributing to the ultimate success of DARPA's Compound Semiconductor Materials on Silicon, or COSMOS, program.
The team for the COSMOS project includes: Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), Raytheon Systems Limited in Glenrothes, Scotland; Teledyne Scientific Imaging Company in Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.; Paradigm Research LLC in Windham, N.H.; IQE in Bethlehem, Pa.; Soitec in Grenoble, France; and Silicon Valley Technology Center in San Jose, Calif.
"Selective placement of semiconductor compounds on silicon is an important achievement because it proves that optimal circuit performance can be produced through a heterogeneous, high-yield, monolithic integration process," said Dr. Tom Kazior, program manager at Raytheon IDS. Raytheon News Release
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Tyco Electronics Agrees to Sell Its RF Components and Subsystem Business To Cobham Plc
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 14, 2008...Tyco Electronics Ltd. of Pembroke, Bermuda, announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Radio Frequency Components and Subsystem business to Cobham Defense Electronic Systems, a subsidiary of Cobham plc.The $425 million cash transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of calendar year 2008.
The company indicated that the sale of the Radio Frequency Components and Subsystem business is part of the company’s strategy to divest certain businesses in to help streamline its portfolio and reallocate resources to its core operations. This business, which formerly was part of Tyco Electronics' Wireless Systems segment, is classified as a discontinued operation and the results of the business are reported accordingly. The Radio Frequency Components and Subsystem business, with approximately 2,000 employees primarily located at 11 locations throughout the U.S. and Europe, designs, manufactures and markets amplifiers, antennas, attenuators, diodes, signal generators, limiters, transistors, modulators and mixers; and microwave and millimeter wave integrated circuits for the aerospace, defense and commercial markets. Tyco Electronics News Release
Freescale GaAs Foundry in Tempe, Arizona to Close
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 14, 2008...Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, Texas USA, will be closing its 17-year-old chip factory in Tempe, Arizona, according to an article in the Arizona Republic. The factory makes gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based chips for wireless applications. Freescale sold its power amplifier business to Skyworks Solutions Inc. last October. Since then, the tempe foundry has been not been producing much because the principal business for the foundry was sold.
"With the amount of work we were doing there, we couldn't justify keeping it open," company spokesperson, Rob Hatley said. Freescale attempted to sell the foundry but found no buyers. The company decided to close the foundry, and layoff 100 of its 23,000 member workforce worldwide. Hatley indicated that the affected employees can accept severance packages or apply for jobs at other facilities The company’s research and development facilities in Tempe and its facilities in Chandler were not affected by the closure. The facility is expected to close over the next few months.
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Skyworks Supports Many New Samsung 3G Handset Models Including First European Mobile TV Slider Phone
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 14, 2008...Woburn, Massachusetts USA-based Skyworks Solutions, Inc., announced that Samsung is leveraging its extremely compact and highly efficiency front-end modules (FEMs) for open-loop EDGE, and power amplifiers (PAs) for WCDMA and HSDPA across more than 10 innovative universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) models. Most notably, Skyworks is supporting Samsung’s first mobile TV slider phone for Europe.
The slim, 16.7 millimeters (mm) P960 supports both European mobile TV technology standards, digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) and the new open mobile alliance mobile broadcast service enabler suite (OMA-BCAST). The handset features a large, 2.6-inch quarter video graphics array (QVGA) thin film transistor (TFT) screen. It offers Bang & Olufsen ICEPower technology for great audio. The handset also has a 3-megapixel camera with power LED, music player, and FM radio with RDS for 24/7 news.
“Skyworks congratulates Samsung on achieving the milestone launch of Europe’s first DVB-H handset, and is pleased to support their family of compelling mobile TV platforms,” said Liam K. Griffin, Skyworks’ senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Our participation in their P960 design reflects our multimode design-win momentum and UMTS market share gains at Samsung and other OEMs.” Skyworks News Release Quantum Computing Closer to Reality After Recent Advances
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 12, 2008...A group of researchers from Stanford and from the University of California Santa Barbara have made a critical breakthrough on the road to quantum computing. The main advance that the group achieved was an interaction among light particles called photons. The researchers were able to do this by placing and indium arsenide quantum dot within the cavity of a photonic crystal. The photonic crystal was a chip of gallium arsenide with precisely drilled holes. The holes give it the ability to trap photons so they can interact with the quantum dot. With the device, the researchers were able to demonstrate controlled phase and amplitude modulation between two modes of light at the single photon level. The device produced phase shifts. The larger control powers produced greater phase shifts. They were able to produce a 45 degree phase shift at larger control powers.
Two photon beams were focused on a quantum dot. One of the photon beams is called a control beam. If the control beam gets to the quantom dot first, the difference in the amount of time in the cavity of the two photon beams corresponds to its phase shift. Phase shifts of 180 degrees are required for a quantum logic gate, the building block of a theorized quantum computer. The researchers believe this could be accomplished with a series of such devices. The results of the research have been published in the May 9, 2008, issue of the journal, Science. Related Article Abstract US DOE Awards SBIR Grant to Applied Nanotech Inc.
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 12, 2008...The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a new $100,000 phase I Small Business Innovative Research grant to Applied Nanotech Inc., of Austin, Texas, a subsidiary of Nano-Proprietary, Inc. The grant is to develop nanoparticle inks and processes for printing photovoltaic cells. The goal of the program is to reduce the cost of production while maintaining or improving performance of the solar cells.
"We are pleased to be selected for this award," said Dr. Zvi Yaniv, President and Chief Executive Officer of ANI. "This grant allows us to expand our field of application to green energy, while capitalizing on our achievements in the development work related to metallic nanoparticles ink." Nano-Proprietary Inc. News Release New Report Suggests Future Handset Transceiver Market Limited to Big Established Companies
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 12, 2008...Research and Markets of Dublin, Ireland, has published its latest report about the Mobile Handset RF IC market. Transceivers and power amplifiers are the most critical components of handsets. The company notes that the transceiver manufacturers are divided into two categories. In the first category, the companies rely on the baseband platform and regard the transceiver as part of the platform. The second group of transceiver manufacturers do not rely on the baseband platform to extend its market. Infineon, Skyworks, RFMD, and ST are among the second group of handset transceiver makers.
The report indicates that it would be extremely difficult for any new small RF transceiver companies to enter the business and be successful in the long term. According to the report, the second group of manufacturers such as TI, NXP, Freescale, Qualcom, is at a distinct disadvantage in the future as integration and multi-mode RF handset components become the best long-term method of reducing costs. Companies such as RFMD and Skyworks will have a difficult time keeping their transceiver businesses without the support of mobile phone platform. According to the report the companys said in a recent news release, "We believe that manufacturers that are making attempts to make a foray into the handset transceiver field cannot succeed, because it is not a field, where emerging producers and small manufacturers can survive. Although they have the chance to be taken over by big manufacturers, they will have used up funds of venture capitalists before being merged." Research and Markets News Release HelioVolt Achieves 12.2% Solar Thin Film Efficiency with Rapid Printing Process
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 12, 2008...Heliovolt, a copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic company of Austin, Texas USA, reports that the company has produced thin film solar cells with 12.2 percent conversion efficiency in a mere 6-minutes. Heliovolt says it utilized its FASST reactive transfer printing process to produce the efficient CIGS solar cells in the short period. The company reports that it is currently optimizing FASST to make further improvements in efficiency and to scale up to commercial manufacture of thin film solar modules and building integrated solar products. “In the lab, CIGS is already achieving the highest efficiencies of any thin film solar material. The challenge of course is transferring that efficiency to a high throughput, high yield, low cost process capable of delivering gigawatts worth of quality commercial product,” said Dr. BJ Stanbery, CEO and founder of HelioVolt.
The company boasts that its FASST reduces costs by manufacturing CIGS thin film products ten to one hundred times more rapidly than competitive processes such as co-evaporation and two-stage selenization. Heliovolt noted independent testing at Colorado State University confirmed the throughput, uniformity, and efficiency of the CIGS solar cells produced using its method. The 12.2 percent efficiency devices reportedly consisted of CIGS photovoltaic thin film layer applied to a glass substrate. The FASST process can also be used to print high efficiency, low-cost thin film material directly on glass substrates for solar modules or onto building products including architectural glass and even roofing tiles. Company News Release
RFMD Announces Restructuring and Focus Shift
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 7, 2008...RF Micro Devices (RFMD) of Greensboro, North Carolina USA has announced that it is reducing its investment in wireless systems such as transceivers and GPS solutions. RFMD reports that it is shifting its focus to its core semiconductor component opportunities including cellular front-ends, the components in its Cellular Products Group (CPG), and the components in its Multi-Market Products Group (MPG).
The company expects to eliminate product development expenses related to its wireless systems business by about $75 million this fiscal year beginning in the June 2008 quarter. RFMD plans to realize the full benefit of the expense elimination in the December 2008 quarter. In the short-term the company estimates about $40 million - $50 million in one-time restructuring costs over the next two quarters. The company said that two-thirds of the restructuring expense is expected to be non-cash with the global staff reduction of 350 employees.
Bob Bruggeworth, president and CEO of RFMD, said, "These strategic actions will enable RFMD to deliver more predictable financial results and substantially higher profitability.” He continued, “We are investing in growing markets where we have a demonstrated track record of success, and we will measure our progress using operating income and return on invested capital (ROIC) as key performance metrics.”
He concluded, “We are confident the steps we have taken will increase shareholder value and provide significant long-term benefits to our global customers and stakeholders." Company News Release Our news features are reported
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