President Barack Obama Tours Solyndra Facility
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 1, 2010...President Barack Obama and California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Solyndra's production fab in Fremont, California.
Solyndra produces copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic cells in cylindrical modules. Both the president and the governor also got to see the construction site where the company's Fab 2 is being built.
President Obama commented,
"So I try to visit places like this about once a week, hear from folks as often as possible who are actually doing the extraordinary work of building up America. And I appreciated the chance to tour your plant and to see the incredible, cutting-edge solar panels that you’re manufacturing, but also the process that goes into the manufacturing of these solar panels. And it is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. And you guys all represent that. So thank you very much for that."
The President said, "It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."
President Obama declared, "We’ve got to go back to making things. We’ve got to go back to exports. We’ve got to go back to innovation. ... The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra, will always be America’s businesses." June 1, 2010...Skyworks Solutions, Inc. of Woburn Massachusetts USA, reports that it has captured design wins at MediaTek. The design wins place Skyworks front-end modules and components in MediaTek's next-generation platforms for low-cost handsets in emerging markets. Skyworks says that its compact and integrated total transmit solutions, consist of a power amplifier (PA), switch module, and automatic power controller. Skyworks says that its transmit solutions offer reduced bill-of-material costs, and they have a smaller footprint.
Skyworks also launched its new mid- and high-power WiFi PAs.
The new mid- and high-power (2.4 - 2.5 gigahertz) PAs are designed for 802.11n multiple in/multiple out (MIMO) access points, routers, and gateways. The PAs reportedly enable multiple-transmit channels on printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Skyworks also unveiled two monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) low noise amplifiers (LNAs) for multiple cellular infrastructure receiver applications including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, and LTE base stations and repeaters. Skyworks boasts that the amplifiers allow infrastructure providers to meet a wide range of demanding performance requirements with a single device that minimizes system noise figure, improves receiver sensitivity, and delivers unconditional stability.
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TriQuint Wins US Air Force Contract to Design and Fabricate GaN Modules for New Drone Aircraft
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 24, 2010...TriQuint Semiconductor has been awarded a contract by the US Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) to develop new Gallium Nitride (GaN) modules for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). AFRL says that the new GaN devices will extend the range and capabilities of UAVs that are used for reconnaissance missions over Afghanistan, Iraq and other regions. The AFRL expects that the more efficient GaN devices will also reduce the need for thermal management and extend battery life in each vehicle.
TriQuint noted that it will develop and fabricate new modules including 20 Watt and 50 Watt devices in-house. The program will reportedly require fitting new 20 Watt amplifiers into the same space now occupied by the fleet's existing 1 Watt devices.
TriQuint Program Manager, Doug Cole commented, "The contract is particularly interesting since we need to increase the power of one device 20-fold without increasing the size. We're using our proven 0.25-micron Gallium Nitride process since it offers excellent power density and ruggedness--key requirements for avionic applications."
Phase I of the Air Force UAV program includes developing high-power GaN amplifier MMICs. During Phase II MMIC amplifiers and other components will be into single packages to provide 20 Watt and 50 Watt Ku-band power amplifiers. TriQuint plans to deliver the first amplifier MMIC by August 2010. The first 50 Watt prototype high power amplifier (HPA) will be delivered in April 2011. Oregon Department of Energy to Consider Loan for Thin-Film Solar PlantMay 24, 2010...The Oregon Department of Energy's state Energy Loan Program (SELP) will meet
at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 25 in Salem to review loan requests. SELP makes long-term, fixed-rate loans to governments, tribes, schools, non-profit organizations, businesses, and individuals to finance Oregon projects that conserve energy or use renewable resources.
The third loan request on the agenda is for $25 million from Solexant Corporation
to finance a thin-film solar plant in the Gresham or Wilsonville area with the capacity to produce 100 MW of thin-film solar cells annually.
The meeting, which open to the public, will be held at the Oregon Department of Energy, 625 Marion Street NE, in Salem. Bob Repine, Department of Energy Director, will make the final decision on the loan request after reviewing the committee’s advice.
Cree’s GaN HEMT MMIC Power Amplifiers Expand Company's GaN MMIC PA Frequency Range Through X-Band
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 24, 2010...Cree has developed five new GaN HEMT MMIC amplifiers that it says increase the company's range of available HEMT MMIC amplifiers to include frequencies through X-Band. As part of a sample release, Cree's GaN MMICs are currently available as bare die and are targeted to be available in packaged formats later this year.
“We are pleased to expand our existing GaN power amplifier MMIC line and introduce our first GaN LNA MMIC product. The introduction of these MMICs expands our leadership position in providing GaN solutions that improve system performance beyond what can be realized using traditional GaAs MMIC technology for applications such as communication systems, homeland defense, electronic warfare and radar from S-band through X-band,” said Jim Milligan, Cree, director of RF & Microwave Products.
Cree introduced the CMLA2540001D, a low noise amplifier (LNA) GaN HEMT MMIC, with a 1.7 dB Noise Figure and a frequency range of 2.5 to 4 GHz
The company also released the CMPA2060025D wide band 25W, 2 to 6 GHz MMIC power amplifier.
Cree introduced the exceptionally small CMPA2735075D high power MMIC amplifier that delivers 75W with PAE of 60%.
The newly introduced CMPA5585025D provides more than 25 watts output power over the 5 to 8 GHz band and is ideal for applications in point-to-point radios, satcom, test instrumentation and EMC amplifiers.
Cree's CMPA801B025D MMIC power amplifier covers the 8 to 11 GHz frequency range with a typical output power capability of 25 watts.
Epistar Qualifies Veeco K465i MOCVD System for LED Production Ramp
CompoundSemi News StaffMay 21, 2010...Veeco of Plainview, New York USA, reports that Epistar Corporation of Taiwan will soon be ramping production of LEDs using its newly qualified TurboDisc K465i MOCVD system from Veeco.
The K465i boasts superior wavelength uniformity, excellent run-to-run repeatability, and high capital efficiency in terms of the number of good wafers per day for each capital dollar. According to Veeco, the K465i can be easily tuned and optimized on wafer sizes up to 8 inches. After mainteance, Veeco says that the system enables a fast tool recovery time.
Dr. M.J. Jou, President of Epistar, commented, “Ramping to production quickly and maintaining high throughput is critical to our success. Veeco enabled us to qualify the K465i rapidly and it provides the automation required to produce highly uniform LEDs with minimal downtime. The K465i provides Epistar the ease-of-use and system availability to meet our growing production requirements.”
Bill Miller, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, General Manager of Veeco's MOCVD Operations said, “As a result of this successful qualification, we currently expect to ship a significant number of tools to Epistar this year. We are excited that we have been chosen to support their volume capacity ramp in 2010. This is an important milestone for Veeco as we continue to build our Taiwan installed base.” Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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