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Editorial: Wireless Woes from the Wilds of Texas
... In a recent chat with a longtime reader, I was asked for another installment of the humorous trials and tribulations involved in our trying to communicate with the outside world. For those who don't know, I work from my ranch in the wilds of Texas where we've come to...
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InP Startup T-Networks Scores Additional $30.6M Venture BackingApril 24, 2002...T-Networks of Allentown,
Pennsylvania USA, which in March introduced
its initial InP optical modulators (see our coverage, Mar
14 issue), has announced that it has received $30.6 million in additional
capital, earmarked for continued production development, organizational development
and the establishment of the company's sales infrastructure. The company was
founded in July of 2000, basing its charter on the practical innovation of InP
materials. The series B funding includes reinvestments by Greylock, Intel Capital,
Sequoia Capital, US Venture Partners, and Vitesse Semiconductor, in addition
to new investor TL Ventures. Included on the T-Network board is longtime compound semi catalyst, Lou Tomasetta, co-founder, President and CEO of Vitesse. In today's tight venture environment, how the capitalization
came about is deemed significant. “T-Networks impresses us with the speed
of their progress in key areas: assembling a first-rate team, building a top-line
development and production facility, successfully applying a systems approach
to optical component technology, and delivering that technology to the market,”
explained one of the general partners at US Ventures, Winston S. Fu, Ph.D. “New
strategies are needed to address the economic and technical challenges faced
in telecommunications, and T-Networks is demonstrating a level of innovative
thinking that we are confident will succeed in helping to move this industry
forward.” Press
release New Focus Sells Passive Line to Finisar for $12.8 MillionApril 25, 2002...Finisar Corporation, a company of approximately 1,200 and one which has acquired
various compound semi industry players, has signed a definitive agreement to
purchase the passive optical component product line from New Focus Inc. (NUFO),
Santa Clara, California USA, a company that employs about 25 people, for $12.8
million. Under the terms of the agreement, Finisar will acquire the physical
assets and intellectual property associated with New Focus' passive line. The
physical assets include development and production equipment as well as certain
raw material and finished goods inventories. New Focus will assign to Finisar
the intellectual property rights to fifty pending and issued patents, proprietary
know-how, and trademarks associated with its passive fiber optic components
and New Focus will retain exclusive rights for use of this intellectual property
outside the field of fiber optic communications. Further details are included
in the companies' comprehensive joint press
release. AXT Launches 6 Inch InP Substrate LineApril 25, 2002...Samples of AXT's new six inch InP VGF substrates are being readied for June
quarter shipments. "Our VGF technology allows us to produce large diameter
substrates with excellent uniformity and low defect density,'' claims Morris
Young, AXT's President and CEO, who is a pioneer in the VGF growth method (vs.
conventional LEC) Much of the industry has now moved to VGF substrate growth
technology. "AXT has always been at the forefront of compound semiconductor
substrate technology and our reward for pioneering new products has been market
share leadership in both gallium arsenide and indium phosphide large diameter
substrates. We are very pleased to announce this breakthrough and believe that
our products will continue to serve as the basis for many important technologies
in wireless and telecommunications infrastructure.'' InP-based semiconductor
devices provide especially high frequency electronic performance and are used
in applications in which other semiconductor materials, such as silicon and
GaAs are unable to perform. Demand is growing quickly for larger diameter InP
substrates as the number of InP-based device developers quickly expands. Target
applications are primarily 3G cellular phones and communications systems with
bit rates of 40 Gbps and higher, such as the OC768 communications protocol.
Whereas InP devices are already widely used in photonic applications as fiber
optic communications components, such as lasers and detectors with wavelengths
of 1,000 nm and longer, the move to 6 inch high quality wafers equates to more
opportunities on the electronics side. AXT points out that a particularly attractive
characteristic of InP relative to other semiconductor materials that is yet
to be fully exploited is its capacity for large-scale integration of electronic
and opto-electronic functions. Press
release Tokyo Denpa Teams with MItsubishi Chem to Develop Single Crystal GaNApril 25, 2002...We look forward to hearing details, but all we know via the Japanese press
is that Tokyo Denpa Company, which specializes in crystal-growing and substrate
processor Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation are said to be collaborating to develop
wafers of single-crystal GaN for use in the fabrication of blue spectrum laser
diodes and HB-LEDs. As reported in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the two companies
have set a two year goal to optimize their growing conditions and within three
years, mass produce their GaN wafers in diameters of two inches. Sandia Steps Into the HB-LED SpotlightApril 25, 2002...Making a colorful new splash on the compound semi HB-LED scene is the U.S.
Energy Department's Sandia National Laboratories' new solid state LED website.
The site was officially launched this week along with Sandia's internal LED
research and commercialization initiative. The site, which is working closely
in conjunction with our CompoundSemi Online industry portal, covers everything
from up-to-date science and technology and business news to a calendar of industry
events. Also provided are background articles and updates on a proposed national
initiative to accelerate progress in solid-state lighting. Another feature of
the website will be a searchable database of relevant patents - a bonus for
those interested in tracking the intellectual property in this field. The site
is sponsored and maintained by an internal Sandia research and development team
that is working on solid-state lighting. The goal of the project is to help
establish the fundamental science and technology base to replace the country's
primary lighting source, incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes, with semiconductor-based
solid-state lighting. Pushing hard to make the site strong is Sandia's Jeff
Tsao who can reached by tel at: 505-844-7092. Press
release. The same day as announcing the site, Sandia also revealed that
they now have 25 researchers working on a project that will help establish a
fundamental science and technology base for solid state LEDs. Sandia Senior
Scientist James Gee, together with department managers Jerry Simmons and Bob
Biefeld, head up the project. Included in the press
release on their work to date and goals is an excellent history of HB-LED
development. April 25, 2002...In March of 2001, we wrote about "The
Camera That Sees Through Things." It was an amazing application
of leading edge compound semi focal plane array (FPA) technology. Well, Sensors-Demeter
Components Group (Sensors Unlimited Inc.) of Princeton, New Jersey USA, a division
of Finisar Corp, has gone one better with their new high end camera, the SU640-1.7RT,
which is a high resolution InGaAs camera. This newest Sensors Unlimited camera
is 2x the resolution of their standard 320x240 camera and has the same spectral
sensitivity 0.9mm to 1.7mm. Compared to other near infrared (NIR) cameras that
are out there this appears to be the highest resolution room temperature InGaAs
imager currently available. Higher resolution allows the user to see more detail
in an object for much the same reason one buys a visible digital camera with
3.1 Megapixels versus one with only 1.5 Megapixels. Simply put, the image looks
better. Major applications of these clever little cameras are for scientific
and industrial imaging under microscopes in the NIR, imaging spectroscopy, and
covert surveillance. For example, silicon microprocessor manufacturers use it
to see through the silicon during processing and with it, are able to detect
any errors being made in while they're being manufactured. What does InGaAs
provide? The use of InGaAs in this application area allows higher resolution
arrays with greater sensitivity and arrays with fewer defective pixels. The
technology developed for this high resolution product will begin by meeting
the demands of the military and eventually trickle down to other products thus
improving the quality and lowering the prices of these cameras. Already these
improvements have been seen in the quality of our 320x240 arrays. Press
release Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
For submissions or content suggestions, you can contact us using
editor -at - compoundsemi.com
For more information and to reserve promotion space contact
Info7 -at - compoundsemi.com
or call +1 (512) 257-9888 |
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The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Wireless Woes from the Wilds of TexasApril 25, 2002...In a recent chat with a longtime reader, I was asked for another installment
of the humorous trials and tribulations involved in our trying to communicate with the
outside world. For those who don't know, I work from my ranch in the wilds of
Texas where we've come to accept third class citizenship in a world of so-called advanced
communications. As the years go on, the experiences become more amusing than
frustrating. (I shudder when remembering what it took to get four telephone lines and Internet connection established). As a Texas rancher, I call these mis-adventure columns The Barbed Wire which I'll someday bundle and post for posterity. Installments began back in
the mid 1980s at our starter ranch in California when sharing that Allen Podell, an original founder
of Pacific Monolithics, MMIC pioneer and noted guru, personally boosted our
conventional housetop television antenna until it actually got a picture. The
PacMo connection continued when we reverse-migrated back to Texas (at the turn of the new century) when we were the first in our area to install wireless
cable. After nine years of first 5 then finally 10 channels, we've progressed now to DishTV (a noteworthy improvement but way
too many channel options) and only a few months ago did we achieve the ability
to receive cellphone reception.
Cellphones in the outback are the dawn of a new day for people like
us who live and/or work about 20 to 30 miles from the nearest town. For years
the only time a cellphone was usable was when I was in an airport. Total clarity
from SFO of DFW or NewYork/NewJersey became taken for granted, but when I headed
for home, there was no use for a cellphone because there simply were no services
available. Only a year ago did services extend to where one could "call home"
from town, and if parked on the tip of a tall hill you might be able to call
911 if needed. The old 5 watt bulky phones are still the best assurance in
times of emergency, so we still keep one of those turned off and tucked under the seat of the
truck with a flashlight.
Towers went up; radios went down but that seemed a small price to pay
for farmers and work crews to gain the capability of communicating with spouses
and/or bosses (who are sometimes one and the same). The cellphones work, but
the tall towers definitely interfere with auto or other "wireless"
radio reception. Fortunately there are CDs when music is really required (and
if you've ever driven a tractor for hours on end, it is). The biggest stride
in cellphone reception in the wilds are that they're small and light, and now
they work. You see them on a Texan's hip like the gunslingers
of old. The most amusing is when a volunteer firefighter has his emergency 2-way
radio on one hip and cellphone on the other which tends to add a swagger to the gunslinger's stride. (In Texas we still get to carry guns... you just can't
see them.) Years ago, when I had a leather holster
made for my early-issue portable phone, I earned the nickname The Fastest
Mouth in the West. Cellphones are comfortably smaller, but cost so much in air
time and battery life that I still prefer the holster and smaller cost of using my 900MHz (not to mention how well it blends well with a "9mm". Somehow I picture you saying, "hmmm...
this isn't your usual advanced technology application story.")
Rattlesnake season, which begins with the warm days, marks the best application for a cellphone. When I take long walks alone in our woods I'm now reassured that I could quickly call for help when out of reach of a land line. (Rattlesnake
season also provides an opportunity to pack a real pistol on the other hip in classic cowboy fashion. At least on ones own land in Texas, you still don't have to conceal your weapons.) While we now have steady reception from our
end of a cellphone, my biggest frustration remains when I'm on the land line
and the caller is mobile and their reception gets very unstable, cutting in
and out as they obviously drive up and down, in and out of range. The most fun
is that cellphone reception has now become so flaky and static-ridden that we've
come to accept its flaws. Why is that fun? Easy. If you're talking to someone
you don't want to, simply crackle and spit and quietly yell... "Sorry...
I can't hear you... You're evidently cutting out... Better ring off now... Bye!. 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... |
