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August 24, 2009...Brian Korgel, a chemical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin has created prototype solar cells made from nanoparticles composed of copper indium gallium diselenide. For the past two years, he and his team have attempted to produce solar cells that can be painted on in several distinct layers with nanoparticle "inks" instead of using the conventional process of metal oxide chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) which takes place in a vacuum chamber and requires high temperatures.
Korgel is reportedly collaborating with professors Al Bard of the Department of Chemistry and Paul Barbara of the Department of Biochemistry, and professor Ananth Dodabalapur of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The team recently reveal proof-of-concept in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The nanomaterials the researchers use are 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair, their size grants them physical properties that can enable higher-efficiency devices. The prototype his team has developed has the efficiency of about 1 percent; Korgel says it would require around 10 percent efficiency to be commercially viable. The inks could be printed on a roll-to-roll printing process on a plastic substrate or stainless steel. And the prospect of being able to paint the "inks" onto a rooftop or building is not far-fetched. He also said that the inks, which are semi-transparent, might enable windows that can double as solar cells.
The National Science Foundation, the Welch Foundation, and the Air Force Research Laboratory help fund the research. University of Texas at Austin News Release
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Philips Lumileds Selects Veeco MOCVD for Production Ramp
LIGHTimes News StaffAugust 21, 2009...Veeco Instruments Inc., of Plainview, New York USA, announced today that Philips Lumileds Lighting Company, a leading manufacturer of high-power light emitting diodes (LEDs), has selected Veeco’s TurboDisc K465™ gallium nitride (GaN) metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems to support its Luxeon LED production ramp. Veeco received a multi-system order to be shipped to Philips Lumileds over the next two to three quarters.
Veeco’s claims that its TurboDisc K465 GaN MOCVD System is the only production-proven, fully automated MOCVD platform available on the market today. Veeco notes that the "K-Series" MOCVD platform includes the K300 and K465 models, providing a modular, upgradeable path to a higher throughput, larger diameter reactor chamber and reduced cost of ownership.
Mike Pugh, Chief Procurement Officer at Philips Lumileds commented, “We have selected Veeco for several reasons. Veeco’s K465 ultimately provides a high level of automation, helps us reduce manufacturing costs, and provides a flexible platform as we look to the future. Additionally, our confidence level in working with Veeco’s systems and services is very high.”
John Peeler, Veeco’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are pleased to have been selected to help Philips Lumileds meet their solid-state lighting production ramp. The TurboDisc K465 has been designed to help customers seamlessly transition to larger wafer sizes, which we believe will be increasingly important to ensure a long capital life, lower customers’ cost of ownership and increase their productivity.”
Veeco News Release PA Designs Featuring Cree GaN HEMT Sweep Competition
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 19, 2009...At the 2009 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium
an amplifier using a Cree GaN HEMT transistor for the third consecutive year won the best power amplifier competition. David Yu-Ting Wu, representing the University of Waterloo, received the award for best performance amplifier designed and demonstrated as judged on efficiency, power and frequency of operation.
Wu’s Inverse Class-F amplifier was reportedly designed using Cree’s proprietary non-linear GaN HEMT model. Cree says that the accuracy of the model in precisely predicting the required impedance conditions for high-efficiency operation was instrumental in achieving first-pass design success. The winning 3.27 GHz amplifier produced 7.1 watts of RF output power at a power added efficiency (PAE) of 71%.
The second- and third-place student teams also used the CGH40010 in Inverse Class-F circuit architectures. They were, respectively, Paul Saad, Hossein Mashad Nemati and Mattias Thorsell from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and Junghwan Moon and Jungjoon Kim from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Korea.
“This is a hat trick, of sorts, for Cree,” said Jim Milligan, Cree director of RF and Microwave products. “It’s exciting for us to see the next generation of engineers creating innovative designs based on our industry-leading technology. Cree congratulates the students for their efforts and wishes them continued success.”
Company News Release
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Jazz Semiconductor's Optimized SiGe Targets Replacement of GaAs Components
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 19, 2009...Jazz Semiconductor announced that it is hoping to replace GaAs components millimeter wave and front-ends of cellular phones with its enhanced SiGe BiCMOS process, IP, and design enablement offerings. The company contends that SiGe provides significant integration and cost advantage over GaAs. Also the company says that it enables products in the emerging markets of automotive collision avoidance, phased-array radar, and HDTV wireless distribution as well as established markets such as optical network and cellular phone front-end components. The company's process technology includes a SiGe transistor that offers demonstrated performance of up to 200GHz as well as noise and power performance that is competitive with GaAs while offering as much as 40% lower die cost.
Jazz is working with the majority of the top 10 IC providers in several of these market segments on SiGe solutions. Among these, Jazz worked with Agilent to provide a SiGe design kit in ADS (Advanced Design System), a leading design platform for GaAs-based products, that the company says speeds time-to-market for customers targeting applications up to and beyond 60 to 77GHz.
"We continue to see migration of GaAs products into SiGe as an exciting growth opportunity for our technology. This transition is largely complete in optical front-end components but just beginning in cellular phone front-ends and millimeter-wave applications," said Dr. Marco Racanelli, Senior Vice President and GM of RF/HPA and Aerospace and Defense Business Groups. Jazz Semiconductor News Release
Intersil Signs MOU with Tower Semiconductor for Co-Development and Manufacturing of Power Management Platform
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 17, 2009...Intersil has reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Tower Semiconductor to co-develop a next-generation power management platform.
Intersil will utilize the platform to manufacture power ICs in Tower’s 200mm fab in Migdal Ha’emek, Israel. Intersil notes that the MOU is reportedly the largest potential engagement in Tower’s history.
Intersil says that the agreement will combine Tower's bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) power process with Intersil's power management design and process capabilities. Intersil revealed that the agreement specifically addresses the requirements of multiple Intersil product families including digital power, PWM controllers and PMICs for a broad set of end user markets such as consumer, computing, communications, industrial and automotive.
”We are very pleased to extend our long-standing partnership to jointly develop a robust and innovative power management platform to address the next-generation needs of power products,” said Sagar Pushpala, Senior Vice President Worldwide Operations and Technology, at Intersil. “Tower provides best-in-class BCD process technology which enables Intersil to offer highly-differentiated power management and non-volatile memory solutions.” Intersil News Release Osram Announces a 50 mW Direct Emitting Green Laser
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 17, 2009...Osram Opto Semiconductors has reported the creation of a direct emitting green indium gallium nitride laser. According to the company, the laser has an optical output of 50MW in pulsed mode operation and emits light in "true green" with a wavelength of 515 nm.
In July, Sumitomo Electric of Japan was apparently the first to announce a pure green laser diode. (Ref: Coverage). Unlike the Osram laser diode, it emits light at 531 nm. Osram points out that "true green" is between 515nm and 535nm.
Osram points out that unlike previous green lasers that relied on frequency doubling, direct emitting green lasers are more compact, offer greater temperature stability, are easier to control, and have higher modulation capability of several hundred mHz.
Osram notes that the advance sets an important new milestone in mobile laser projection applications.
Dr. Christian Fricke, Chief Technology Officer at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, said, “With this demonstrator we have shown that green lasers can be manufactured from indium-gallium-nitride. We are therefore on course to produce compact, cost-effective, high-quality green laser light sources.“
German Ministry for Education and Research is reportedly sponsoring the MOLAS research project (until March 2011, FKZ 13N9373) which involves technologies for ultra-compact and mobile laser projection systems. As part of this project, OSRAM is developing efficient laser light sources based on the InGaN material system (indium-gallium-nitride) for mobile projection systems. With the first direct emitting green laser the company has achieved an important early objective. Osram Opto Semiconductors News Release Our news features are reported
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