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Editorial: Numbers You Can Take to the Bank
... Amidst economy woes and summer doldrums, Strategy Analytics issues two reports indicating that things aren't so awfully bad in compound semi land after all. The reports are likely to help encourage new backers to take the plunge into the compounds and pacify those who have had faith in our...
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Filtronic to Sell Defense Electronics Business; Focus on Point to Point Business
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 4, 2008...Filtronic Plc has reportedly agreed to sell its defense business to Teledyne Ltd., a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, for £13.0 million (on a cash free debt free basis). Filtronic’s defense electronics business designs and manufactures customized radio frequency, microwave, and millimeter wave components and subsystems for the global defense industry. It has operations in the United Kingdom and Australia. Filtronic notes that in the twelve months ending May 31, 2008, the defense electronics business generated £14.5 million of revenue and £1.3 million of operating profit. Also, as of May 31, 2008, Filtronic’s defense electronics business had gross assets of £7.4 million.
The consideration consists of a cash payment of £13.0 million (subject to the repayment of intra-group debt). The payment is subject to a working capital adjustment at completion. The proceeds of the transaction will be retained within Filtronic’s general corporate resources, and the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and to the Secretary of State for Defense. It will not be referred to the Office of Fair Trading before the date of completion. Filtronic said it expects to complete the transaction by the end of August 2008.
After the sale, Filtronic said it will focus on its point to point business, and it said that after the transaction is complete, its balance sheet will contain around £40m (c 55p per share) in cash. Filtronic’s board announced its intention to declare another special dividend after completing the transaction. Filtronic News Release August 4, 2008...Energy Innovations, a company based in Pasadena, California USA, that makes a sun tracking and silicon photovoltaic system, reported that its Sunflower Solar Concentrator has officially received certification from the Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The company says that its Sunflower Solar Concentrator can carry the UL Mark under the Concentrator Photovoltaic Modules and Assemblies (QIPC) category. The Sun tracking and concentrating system has implications for compound semiconductor and multi-junction solar cells. Energy Innovations points out that so far, no other product in the concentrating solar photovoltaic (CPV) category has achieved this certification. The company notes that certification from a nationally recognized test laboratory, such as UL, is required to obtain permits for commercial PV installations and is necessary to qualify for most U.S. state incentive programs.
The Sunflower CPV Solution reportedly integrates the photovoltaic module, tracker, controller and communications system into one solution. The company contends that the solution produces cost-competitive solar power while also being easy to install and maintain over time. Energy Innovations said it will be raising more capital to expand production and deploy commercial installations coming online in 2009.
“After strict evaluation and testing to all current requirements, Underwriters Laboratories has issued UL Listing for the Sunflower solar concentrator system,” said Evelyn Butler, manager of UL’s Renewable Energy Sector. “We look forward to working with Energy Innovations and the growing community of solar start-ups, as well as regulatory authorities, government agencies and other stakeholders, to further define and develop requirements that will be used to test other solar concentrating photovoltaic products.” Company News Release Fox Group Licenses its Silicon Carbide Patents to II-VI
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 4, 2008...The Fox Group, Inc. of Montréal, Canada, announced that it has entered into a patent license agreement with the Wide Bandgap Materials group of II-VI Incorporated. The Fox Group noted that the agreement is the third non-exclusive license agreement the company has signed in the last three months for its silicon carbide related patents. Details of the patent license were not disclosed. However, a cursory search of the US patents revealed that the company apparently has six patents related specifically to silicon carbide. (Ref: U.S. Patents). The Fox Group points out that low defect density silicon carbide is used in the production of high performance power semiconductor devices and optoelectronics such as LEDs, lasers, RF transistors, detectors, MOSFETs, HEMTs, JFETs, BJTs, and Schottky barrier, and PIN diodes.
Barney O’Meara, President & CEO of Fox Group stated, “Fox Group’s key patents are for silicon carbide with low defect density, which is especially desirable for LEDs, RF devices, and high power semiconductors. At this time non-exclusive licenses are still available to companies in the silicon carbide industry worldwide. Since Fox Group is not making silicon carbide wafers or devices, we are happy to have our patents being utilized by our licensees.” Fox Group News Release US Navy Selects GeneSiC for New SBIR Awards
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 4, 2008...The U.S. Navy has reportedly selected GeneSiC of Dulles, Virginia USA, for two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards. The awards will fund development of high voltage SiC devices that are critical for integrating high power RADARs, Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), and ship propulsion systems with the modern on-board power sources. After completing a Phase I SBIR project, the US Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center selected its Phase II SBIR proposal. The project is to develop multi-kV SiC devices for power conditioning and power distribution systems using legacy and modern ship bus infrastructure. In another SBIR award to the company, the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) has completed award formalities on Phase I of a project focused on the design and fabrication of novel SiC devices for high-frequency, high-power RADAR applications.
"These projects will enable GeneSiC to develop industry-leading SiC devices through its innovative device solutions," said Dr. Ranbir Singh, GeneSiC’s President. "Power devices targeted in these programs will allow Megawatt-level power to be handled with digital precision. This technology has the potential to revolutionize critical commercial and military hardware, not yet possible due to the limitations of contemporary Silicon based technologies. These device development programs can also significantly improve the efficiency levels in power inverters used to integrate wind and solar energy systems with the power grid," he added.
The company said it is aggressively hiring personnel experienced in compound semiconductor device fabrication, semiconductor testing, and detector designs. Company News Release Rubicon to Supply 8” Sapphire Wafers for Peregrine Semiconductor’s UltraCMOS RFICs
CompoundSemi News StaffJuly 30, 2008...Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation of San Diego, California USA, a supplier of high- performance RF, CMOS, and mixed-signal communications ICs and Rubicon Technology, a supplier of sapphire substrates and advanced materials, announced that Rubicon has begun initial production of 8” sapphire wafers to supply to Peregrine for its UltraCMOS Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) semiconductor processing.
Jim Cable, Peregrine’s CEO stated, “As we migrate to 8-inch wafers and smaller geometries, our customers will benefit from unprecedented product performance and cost-effectiveness.”
Peregrine says that the ability to integrate high-performance RF, analog, digital, passive elements, and nonvolatile memory on a single, standard CMOS IC sets UltraCMOS devices apart from compound semiconductor and other mixed-signal processes."
“Peregrine has achieved a leadership position in the RFIC industry with its patented silicon-on-sapphire technology,” said Raja Parvez, President and CEO of Rubicon Technology. “Rubicon has leveraged its unique crystal growth technology platform to rapidly develop very high quality 200mm sapphire wafers that represent the next generation substrates for SOS RFIC technology.” Peregrine News Release Cyrium Gets $15 Million Funding
CompoundSemi News StaffJuly 30, 2008...Cyrium Technologies of Ottawa, Canada, a maker of multi-junction solar cells for photovoltaic concentrators, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Quercus Trust of Costa Mesa. The company said that major investors from previous rounds of financing also participated in this round including: BDC Venture Capital, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, and Pangaea Ventures Ltd. Cyrium is a developer of innovative solutions in the solar renewable energy field.
Steve Eglash, CEO of Cyrium Technologies stated, “Cyrium’s momentum has been building steadily and the concentrator photovoltaic market is poised for rapid growth. The strong support of all of our investors including The Quercus Trust will help Cyrium to achieve critical milestones.” Cyrium Technologies News Release
Veeco Gets Order from Spectrolab; Becomes Profitable in Q2 2008.
CompoundSemi News StaffJuly 30, 2008...Veeco Instruments Inc. of Plainview, New York USA, announced that during the recently completed second quarter the Company received a multi-unit order for its TurboDisc K-475 As/P (arsenic phosphide) metal organic chemical vapor (MOCVD) deposition systems from Boeing Spectrolab Inc., the a leading manufacturer of space solar cells and panels. Veeco notes that its TurboDisc As/P tools are engineered for high volume production of compound semiconductor materials such as those used in solar cells, red, orange, and yellow LEDs, laser diodes, pHEMTs, and HBTs.
Sam DiRenzo, Vice President, General Manager, of Veeco's MOCVD business commented, "We are pleased to receive this order from Spectrolab, and to continue to support their success as a world leader in advanced solar cell technology. Spectrolab's continued breakthroughs in this technology have the potential to lead to more cost-competitive solar electricity." Veeco News Release.
Veeco turned a profit in the second quarter of 2008, and much of the revenue came from growth in the company’s LED and solar process equipment business.
John R. Peeler, Veeco's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Second quarter LED & Solar Process Equipment revenues were $45.1 million, up 61% compared to the prior year and 7% sequentially, representing our largest segment." 2008 Q2 Quarterly Financial Results TriQuint Wins “Northwest 100” Award
CompoundSemi News StaffJuly 30, 2008...TriQuint of Hillsboro, Oregon USA has received the “Northwest 100” award for 2008 from the the Seattle Times. The award is for being among the top 100 companies in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States based on four dimensions of performance over the previous two fiscal years. TriQuint, a provider of RF solutions and a semiconductor foundry service, ranked 23rd on the list of 100.
Ralph Quinsey, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Throughout TriQuint's 23 years, we have delivered innovative radio frequency (RF) solutions to the world's top communications companies. This award recognizes our employees' dedication to industry-leading technology, top-notch customer service and sound financial performance, and confirms we are well-positioned as the demand for wireless devices grows." Company News Release Our news features are reported
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The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Numbers You Can Take to the Bank
Jo Ann McDonald, founding editorJuly 22, 2008...Amidst economy woes and summer doldrums, Strategy
Analytics issues two reports indicating that things aren't so awfully bad
in compound semi land after all. The reports are likely to help encourage new
backers to take the plunge into the compounds and pacify those who have had
faith in our brand of semiconductors for longer than they may care to recall.
In our mainstay compound device category, GaAs devices, growth was estimated
by Strategy Analytics to have grown by an impressive and steadily bankable
17% this past year, weighing in at a market worth if $3.6 billion in 2007. On
the bulk substrate side of the business, their estimate of demand for semi-insulating
GaAs bulk substrates is that it enjoyed an acceptable increase of 5% in 2007,
with an expected growth at the same level through 2012. Backers, of course,
expect steady, predictable growth. They don't always get it, but that's what
they'd like. At the rate the CS industry is growing, GaAs looks like a good,
steady bet because that segment of our business has obviously (and sometimes
painfully) matured to the point where merchant demand for GaAs is not only steady
and predictable, but that the natural evolution from 4" starting material
to 6" is almost complete as the CS industry continues the journey forged
by silicon, moving slowly to bigger and better starting wafers.
The two reports are titled: GaAs
Semiconductor Market Grows to Over $3.6 billion in 2007 and Markets
for SI GaAs Substrates: 2007-2012 and both ore authored by our good friend
Asif
Anwar. If you aren't already familiar with Strategy Analytics, the firm
has specialized in the compounds for almost as many years as GaAs has been around...
and that's a long, long time. With main offices in both the UK and the USA,
and with Asif traveling tirelessly all over the world in pursuit of facts and
figures, the firm enjoys an excellent reputation, especially amongst us old-timers.
I first got to know them over 25 years ago when they were BIS Macintosh, back
when Simon Lande ran the CS research. I'd go interview a company at length as
a journalist for EE Times and GaAs News, and eventually for this
publication, CS News, which was the first CS industry publication to
go online. Being a non-technical person, I'd painstakingly transcribe long taped
conversations with CEOs and their technical people to assure accuracy. Then
Simon would beg to see the transcripts, sifting through my babble for pearls
that he might have missed in his personal legwork. In its present form, SA's
Asif Anwar knows this growing field so well he doesn't need anyone's help making
sense of it all. It comes rather naturally now. Officially, Strategy Analytics,
Inc. focuses "on market opportunities and disruptive forces in the areas
of Automotive Electronics and Entertainment, Broadband Connected Home, Mobile
& Wireless Intelligent Systems Implementation Strategies and High Frequency
Market intelligence." Unofficially, they're simply great guys that do an
excellent job ..."making sense of it all."
You can read a bit about SA's GaAs reports in our recent news coverage (that's
what we specialize in: the tip of the iceberg), and by hitting the hotlinks
above, you can read the summaries for yourself. I think you'll find that, on
the surface, the numbers are uplifting. But the real bankable knowledge comes
with doing what Simon Lande (now of Magus Research in the UK) and I did in the
old days. Reading the whole report. Reading carefully, and reading between the
lines. Then, when you've digested it all, do what the other winners in this
field do. "Take it to the bank" and help yourself stay in business
another few decades.
If you have questions about the
solid state lighting and compound semiconductor industries or have news
or views to share, I'm Jo Ann McDonald, Editor of LIGHTimes and CompoundSemi News.
Feel free to contact me directly, anytime. 
My direct tel at the ranch is
+1-325-463-5345
From time to time Jo Ann may comment on companies in which she holds a
modest investment - be sure to read
her disclosure at some point in time... |
