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 Brighter

October 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 Challenges

October 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 Compounds

October 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 Space

October 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 Program

October 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.

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