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Editorial: Bloomberg Commits Major Errors in Anadigics Report
... According to the earnings report season currently underway, which heavily effects the stock prices of publicly held compound semi industry companies, things are definitely picking up... at least for those that the major financial reporting sources, such as Bloomberg, don't inadvertently report on in an obviously inaccurate manner. When...
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Cree Gets Even BrighterOctober 23, 2001...Cree Inc. is a very smart company, one which appears to be getting even brighter
with its new "X-Bright" line of blue spectrum LEDs. As introduced
today, the X-Bright family is touting an approximate increase of 50 % over Cree's
"MegaBrights," targeting applications including solid state illumination,
cellphones, automotive, traffic signals, and video screens. Cree's initial blue
and ultraviolet (UV) X-Bright LEDs are expected to be available for customer
sampling during the second quarter of fiscal year 2002 with production availability
anticipated in the Q-3, with price points competitive with its MegaBright LEDs.
Chuck Swoboda, Cree's President and CEO said, "With this technology, we believe
Cree has significantly raised the bar in nitride LED performance. We will continue
our R&D efforts on increasing brightness while maintaining price/performance
levels to support the inauguration of new solid state illumination applications
as well as secure previously inaccessible market opportunities." October 23, 2001...The market for blue spectrum LEDs (which includes all colors in the blue hue, i.e. blue, green, cyan, violet, UV/white) is getting so enticing that it's apparently
time to bring on the monster machines geared specifically to make them. In the
case of Lumileds Lighting, which entered
the field as an early stage player, roaring under the steam of Aixtron's initial
GaN MOCVD platforms, the company is complimenting its existing cadre of epitaxial reactors
with Emcore's new "GaNzilla" tools which are specifically designed
to beef up the production of blue spectrum LEDs and lasers. For those unfamiliar
with Lumileds and/or the blue spectrum LED field, Lumileds is the joint venture
between Agilent Technologies (formerly part of Hewlett Packard) and Philips
Lighting. For years and years under the famed HP banner, the Agilent/Lumileds people maintained an incredible track record of historically being the only US
LED manufacturer to be able to compete, toe to toe, with Asian LED manufacturers. Fortified with the time-honored Philips name in lighting,
as well as its outstanding line of consumer electronic products, including the
pioneering of DVDs, Lumileds now looks unstoppable as the leading player
in next-gen HB-LEDs, in all colors, over the entire spectrum. To continue that tradition, Lumileds Lighting
has purchased multiple GaNzilla tools from Emcore in just the initial phase
of an agreement between to two compound semi industry leaders. GaNzilla, named after the old movie star "Godzilla," is a unique machine, not only because of its blue spectrum LED output capability, but it holds the records for hassle-free installation in an unprecedented timeframe from the time of order to delivery. Consequently, the compound semi industry's HB-LED sector is likely to see considerable stepped up action from Lumileds due to recruiting Emcore's amicable new "monster machine." For more details, reference Emcore's Press
release Microsemi Tackling Battery Operated Blue LED ChallengesOctober 23, 2001...Microsemi Corp., the silicon-heavy power management packaging pros that recently
acquired a great deal of compound savvy, has leaped into the blue spectrum LED
field with two strong feet, one firmly planted in Cree's GaN camp, and the other
in Nitronex'. To start their campaign, Microsemi drew themselves a complete
roadmap for the development of blue, ultraviolet and white HB-LEDs targeted
at the mobile phone, PDA and solid state backlighting applications. Then they
released a new LED driver that complements its LED roadmap, which they personify
as a "comprehensive light engine portfolio." Under separate alliances
with Cree and Nitronex, Microsemi is developing two different approaches to
blue and ultraviolet LEDs. Miocrosemi's first approach, via Cree's gallium nitride
on silicon carbide (GaN on SiC) device expertise, is to develop an LED package
that can handle more power in the same size package as conventional surface
mount packages and their results thus far show thermal resistance of 1/4 that
of competitors, allowing designers to drive LEDs at higher than the typical
rated current of 30mAmps. Called their "Optomite LED package," the
devices can now handle up to 100mA of continuous current without overheating
or stressing the LED chip and reducing its lifetime. Microsemi's second approach
is more aggressive in nature and is being developed in a joint alliance with
Nitronex. These two exceptionally aggressive companies have co-developed an
approach to build blue and ultraviolet LEDs on a silicon substrate by taking
advantage of Nitronex's Sigantic gallium nitride on silicon (GaN on Si) process
and Microsemi's patented MMSM chip scale architecture to develop a ``package-less''
technology that aims to significantly increase brightness, reduce VF and eliminate
problematic epoxy packaging, which tends to discolor in ultraviolet exposure.
The approach utilizes glass instead of epoxy and creates a platform for creating
reliable, long life, high brightness ultraviolet LEDs which the partners consider
to be the basis for a new generation of improved white LEDs. Mastermind of this
aggressive campaign and entry into the field is Manuel Lynch, VP of Business
Development for Microsemi who predicted that, "By year's end, Microsemi
will become the only U.S. semiconductor manufacturer able to provide a complete
system-engineered solution for battery-operated LED lighting applications." AmberWave Strains to Compete with IBM & Conventional CompoundsOctober 23, 2001...AmberWave Systems Corporation of Salem,
New Hampshire USA has formally made its presence and intentions known with its
recent debut by announcing an initial "high-mobility MOS strained silicon
solution" which AmberWave says will surely and completely "redefine
the existing silicon roadmap, and ultimately the semiconductor industry, by
offering the speed of GaAs and InP materials but, incredibly, with silicon cost
and infrastructure." AmberWave's "strained silicon" intellectual
property is at the core of the company's strategy and sounds considerably like
IBM's Bernie Myerson's mantra regarding the virtues of SiGe, tantamount of which
is that old silicon fabs can be relatively easily converted to SiGe production.
AmberWave was co-founder by MIT Professor Gene Fitzgerald, whom AmberWave says
is the "Father of High Mobility Strained Silicon." Meanwhile, IBM is pushes
SiGe to 56 Gigs over at Bernie Myerson's SiGe camp at IBM, where researchers
claim to have achieved (according to an EE Times report) "sustainable line
rates of 56 Gbits/second using a production-level SiGe process." IBM's
latest results are being presented in Baltimore this week at the GaAs IC Symposium.
IBM also will discuss the design of a new SiGe electro-absorption modulator
to demonstrate that SiGe could be suitable for OC-768 analog circuits, despite
its low breakdown voltage at high frequencies. Agilent Squeezes E-pHEMTs into 60% Less Board SpaceOctober 23, 2001...Agilent's highly regarded RF
& Microwave Design Center has introduced the Agilent ATF-541M4, touted
by the company to be the industry's smallest single-voltage enhancement mode
(E) pHEMT GaAs FET. The device is a miniature leadless package that measures
only 1.4 mm x 1.2 mm x 0.7 mm and takes up 60% less board space than the conventional
SC-70 package (2.1 mm x 2.0 mm x 0.9 mm). The small size, low noise and high
linearity is geared for tower-mounted amplifiers and front-end LNAs or hybrid
modules for GSM/TDMA/CDMA/W-CDMA base stations operating at 900 MHz and 1.9
GHz. Agilent says their E-pHEMT devices are the first commercially available
single-supply GaAs transistors that do not need a negative gate bias voltage
for operation which helps simplify the design and reduce the cost of receivers
and transmitters in many applications in the 450 MHz to 6 GHz frequency range.
The ATF-541M4 E-pHEMT device is priced at $2.18/piece in 10,000- to 24,999-piece
quantities and is supplied in bulk (100 units per antistatic bag), or tape-and-reel
with 3,000 devices on a 7-inch reel, and 10,000 devices on a 12-inch reel, and
delivery is from stock. For more details, reference Agilent's press
release. II-VI Delivers CdZnTe Rad Detectors for NASA's SWIFT ProgramOctober 23, 2001...The e-V products division of II-VI Incorporated, a 600 employee-strong compound
semi company based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania USA has completed the delivery
of the final quantities of radiation detectors required for the NASA SWIFT program
with a total of 40,000 Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) radiation detectors.
The goal of this especially interesting NASA program is to study the underlying
cause of gamma ray bursts, the largest known explosions in the universe. The
CdZnTe radiation detectors produced by eV PRODUCTS will be placed in the Burst
Alert Telescope (BAT) on the gamma burst observatory of the NASA SWIFT mission
currently scheduled for launch in the fall of 2003. For those who are not familiar
with the company, II-VI Incorporated specializes
specifically in infrared (IR) technology and is a very interesting, fully integrated
manufacturer of laser optic materials, optics, components, electro-optical products
and radiation detection devices from gamma ray to far infrared wavelengths.
Press release.
Our news features are reported
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For submissions or content suggestions, you can contact us using
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The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Bloomberg Commits Major Errors in Anadigics ReportOctober 23, 2001...According to the earnings report season currently underway, which heavily effects the stock prices of publicly held compound
semi industry companies, things are definitely picking up... at least for those
that the major financial reporting sources, such as Bloomberg,
don't inadvertently report on in an obviously inaccurate manner. When one of
our community is so wounded, we all bleed, therefore, I feel it's our duty to point out such blatant mistakes. I quote Bloomberg reporter,
Amy Hellickson in the body of her Oct.
23 report: "Anadigics, which said last month it planned to cut 600
jobs, expects to return to profitability by the second quarter..."
To those who know Anadigics well, as
we do here at CompoundSemi Online, if the mistake wasn't so obviously damaging,
it would be comical, since 600 cuts would mean that CEO Bami Bastani would be running
Anad's cleanrooms all by himself (plus answering the phone)as Anadigics only has around 600 employees. Anadigics did have to cut a few jobs early in the summer, but they were few in number and in line with similar actions undertaken by most all their peers in the broadband sector. Bloomberg also headlined Anad with "4th-Quarter Sales to Fall" when the press release clearly stated "4th quarter sales are expected to rise sequentially (Q3 to Q4)."
Can Blue Lasers Be Next for Heavy-Hitter GaN LED Players?October 23, 2001...As you can see by the top three items in today's edition, blue spectrum GaN-based
progress continues to dominate the news. Last
week it was TDI's unveiling of their True Bulk GaN and RFMD's acquisition
of GaN-based RF Nitro. This week it's more GaN news emanating out of Cree, Lumileds
Lighting, Microsemi, and Nitronex. While the headline news focuses on the blue
spectrum high brightness work from each of these leaders, one can't help but
wonder how long it will be before these heavy-hitters enter the blue laser lane?
I was once instructed by some very smart professors that the difference between
a very bright LED and a laser diode wasn't actually that much. As anyone who
has viewed our Nitride and
GaN 101 videos knows, once a company has invested in the necessary epi deposition
equipment and the outstanding talent it takes to design and manufacture their
circuits on these highly sophisticated platforms, the leap from blue spectrum
HB-LEDs to blue spectrum LDs can be reduced to a relatively small jump.
Life in the Blue Laser Lane has the very real potential of being extremely
lucrative, as market studies at Strategies
Unlimited have underscored in their highly regarded GaN studies. As pointed
out in the TDI True Bulk GaN press
release, blue laser diode-based higher density DVD players, the successor
to today's DVDs, are expected to first appear on the market in 2002, and the
first recordable players and drives are expected to appear in 2003, with revenues
forecast to reach over $2 billion by 2009 after which those numbers are expected
to climb even more dramatically. In addition to DVDs, blue spectrum lasers for
both medical and defense applications are deemed especially attractive. We know
that Cree Inc. and Nichia are the early stage entries, but with the accomplishments
of the above blue spectrum HB-LED players, will we be seeing new contenders
coming on the scene? In this case, more players declaring their intent would
be regarded as a very good sign.
III-Vs Review Moves to Free SubscriptionsOctober 20, 2001...The compound semi industry's oldest and very well-respected magazine, III-Vs
Review, is finally being offered free
to qualified subscribers after 15 years of being a paid subscription-based
print journal. RFMD Scores 7th North Carolina "Fast 50" AwardOctober 20, 2001...RF Micro Devices, Inc. (RFMD) of Greensboro, North Carolina USA has been honored
for the seventh year in a row by Deloitte & Touche as one of their prestigious
North Carolina Technology Fast 50 ranked companies. RFMD's heavily compound
semi based RFICs for wireless communications are one of the most widely popular
in a well-populated field. During the past fiscal year, RFMD posted the sixth-highest
five-year growth rate in the state, achieving an increase of 2,937 percent.
Press
release
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... |
