|
Editorial: Tradition of Independence
... Every 4th of July our international readers of CompoundSemi News can expect a column out of me trying to better explain the USA's tradition of "Independence." For those who just arrived on this planet, a couple hundred years ago, a handful of white men of British descent decided they...
Jump down to the full story
| |
Features:
|
|
July 4, 2002...Bookham Technology plc of Oxfordshire, UK, has announced that, as a means of
best leveraging their recent acquisition of Marconi’s optical component business,
Bookham will now "concentrate" its worldwide production in two out
of its current four facilities. Both facilities to be retained are in the UK.
Bookham will be manufacturing their ASOC components at the Milton facility and
their active components at the Caswell site. The two facilities that will be
closed will be those in Maryland USA and Sindon in the UK. Details of what each
facility produced at a dollar (and pound) output and Bookham's estimated burn
rate are revealed in their press
release. ANL Builds Portable Nuclear Detector Based on GaAsJuly 4, 2002...In a recent feature story from Argonne National Laboratory, the USA DoE's original
National Lab, located in Argonne, Illinois and operated by the University of
Chicago, the role of GaAs was highlighted as the optimum material for a small,
portable detector to be used for finding concealed nuclear weapons and materials.
When fully developed, the GaAs-based device could assist international inspectors
charged with preventing smuggling and unauthorized use of nuclear weapons and
materials. The story puts the role of GaAs in an interesting light. "The
heart of the Argonne device is a small wafer of gallium arsenide (GaAs), a semiconducting
material similar to silicon. When coated with boron or lithium, GaAs can detect
neutrons, such as those emitted by the fissile materials that fuel nuclear weapons.
Patents are pending on several detectors and their components. The wafers are
small, require less than 50 volts of power and operate at room temperature.
They also can withstand relatively high radiation fields and do not degrade
over time. 'The working portion of the wafer is about the diameter of a collar
button, but thinner,' said Raymond Klann, who leads the group from Argonne's
Technology Development Division that developed the wafer and detector. 'It is
fairly straightforward to make full-sized detector systems the size of a deck
of cards, or even smaller. Something that small can be used covertly, if necessary,
by weapons inspectors to monitor nuclear facilities.' The key to detection,
he said, is to coat the gallium-arsenide with something like boron or lithium.
When neutrons strike the coating, they produce a cascade of charged particles
that is easy to detect. The wafers are made by inexpensive, conventional microchip-processing
techniques, Klann said." The complete story
can be found on ANL's website. Germany's Infineon Becomes "Fastest Tech in the USA's West"July 4, 2002...Over the past few years, Infineon Technologies has been regarded as the classic
moving target within compound semi circles. If Infineon was interested
in a new technology, compound semi suppliers flocked to be included. From their
latest news it seems the speedy metaphor is more relevant than ever.
Infineon has acquired the naming rights to the famed USA Sears Point motorsports
raceway/speedway. Sears Point is located in Sonoma County in California, just
north of where Silicon Valley is geographically located in the San Francisco
Bay Area, at the geographical entry to where some of California's finest vineyards
begin. The time-honored name of Sears Point Raceway, long considered
one of North America's most complete and versatile motorsports complexes, will
hereafter be known as Infineon Raceway. With the renaming goes a "long-term
strategic partnership with Infineon Technologies." The new Infineon Raceway
name and logo were unveiled at a Winner's Circle press conference attended by
senior executives of Speedway Motorsports, Infineon Technologies and Infineon
representative Mario Andretti, who served as Grand Marshal of the Dodge/Save
Mart 350 NASCAR Winston Cup event. So for those in our field who continue to
question what type resources our major systems integrators, like Infineon, still
have... and how they're being allocated, we refer you to the words of Julian
Hawkins, VP of Sales for Infineon Technologies North America Corp. who addressed
was quoted at the unveiling as saying: "By using the facilities here to showcase
our products to customers, partners and the general public, we gain both broad
exposure and direct business-to-business marketing opportunities. This is a
superb starting point for business development and customer relationship programs
to grow our business in North America." "The Infineon brand embodies the fundamental
qualities we associate with this new facility -- speed, performance and quality
relationships with customers," We all wish them the best on the new venture
and sincerely hope it helps rev up more business for all. Press
release Palomar Pushes PackagingJuly 4, 2002...The industry continues to pay far too little attention to packaging, and so
it is with pleasure we point you to Palomar
Technologies. Palomar recently achieved their ISO 9001 certification (press
release) and also announced the establishment of their new process development
and prototyping services (press
release) in Vista, California USA. Originally established in 1975 as part
of Hughes Aircraft Company Assembly and Test, Palomar became an independent
company in 1995 as the result of a management buyout. The company is therefore
well-positioned as a provider of high-reliability solutions for complex electronic
assembly applications and has demonstrated it can move quickly from a defense-based,
engineering-driven focus to a commercially-based, market-driven focus... and
like so many defense rooted companies are now finding, the agility works both
ways as they necessarily move back, in some cases, to defense contracts. As
manufacturers move more toward outsourcing, Palomor is coming on their radar
screens. Their expanded applications engineering division and test facilities
in Vista includes an increase in its number of staff and they are now equipped
to offer a variety of levels of service which can include designing a complete
process for an optoelectronic package up to prototype level, including dispense,
first level interconnects, fiber align and attach, and test, or a truncated
service based on proving a customer-designed package design for automation.
"Building prototypes in-house on manual equipment is not a true test of whether
a product can be successfully produced in volume," said Michael Fabel, Palomar's
process development supervisor. "Automated production requires additional
considerations that must be designed into the process. Contract manufacturers
usually won't produce small quantities of a product for prototyping purposes.
Having Palomar integrate the automated assembly line and create the prototype
allows a company to anticipate manufacturing requirements and discover any problems
before production begins." NSG Ramps Compound SemisJuly 4, 2002...Thanks to a recent press release from Aixtron, the role Nippon
Sheet Glass is playing in advancing compound semi based solutions has been
been underscored, and NSG is, indeed, doing some especially interesting work
in their Central
R&D facilities as well as in their various divisions. Aixtron installed
a new 2400/2600G3 Planetary MOCVD system at NSG's Micro
Optics operation. The new system is slated for use in NSG's volume production
ramp of high-power switches, LEDs and InP based detectors. JX Crystals Creates GaSb 'Midnight Sun' Solar Heating StoveJuly 4, 2002...There's a very interesting family-owned company called JX
Crystals in Issaquah, Washington which is in the far Northwestern USA that
makes photovoltaic cells out of GaSb compound semi crystals. It was started
by Lew Fraas, a colleague of our Sr. Technology Editor, Alan
Thompson, who both were at Boeing doing early work on compound semiconductors
prior to Lew starting JX Crystals with his wife, who was already in the business
of importing GaSb from the People's Republic of China, Lew Fraas was at one
time the record holder for the highest efficiency space photovoltaic (PV) cell
(with a mechanically stacked tandem). RC). Heavily supported by USA Small Business
Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts, JX
Crystals manufactures what they say is the only affordable photovoltaic
cells that respond to infrared radiation from a fuel-fired emitter, rather than
the visible light energy from the sun. Using these cells, JX has created a line
of Midnight Sun cogenerators of electricity and heat are quiet, reliable,
clean and efficient, meeting the needs for remote and mobile applications. Military
and Department of Energy contracts totaling over one million dollars per year
have allowed JX Crystals to fabricate 100 Watt and 500 Watt prototypes and thousands
of its patented infrared-sensitive photovoltaic cells. Six current contracts
call for fabrication of units from 20 Watts up to 4 kilowatts. Infrared Cell
Technology: The foundation of the company are GaSb photovoltaic cells, which
respond to longer wavelength radiation than either traditional silicon cells
or newer gallium arsenide cells. JX has moved totally up the integration ladder
to develop develop The Midnight Sun Heating Stove which is a simple propane-fired
heating stove that puts out 25,000 Btu/hr of heat and simultaneously generates
100 Watts of electricity. We refer you to JX
Crystals' website for more details and look forward to hearing more details
direct from the principals in the months to come. 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 |
|
The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Tradition of IndependenceJuly 4, 2002...Every 4th of July our international readers of CompoundSemi News can
expect a column out of me trying to better explain the USA's tradition of "Independence."
For those who just arrived on this planet, a couple hundred years ago, a handful
of white men of British descent decided they wanted the colonies on the East Coast of America, which they controlled, to become
united and independent states (Ref: National Archive's Declaration
of Independence website)
and immune from the whims of the British crown. They succeeded, and every 4th
of July we Americans salute our forebearers by eating too much, setting off
fireworks, and holding community parades. Those who have the most fun are generally
children, who get to stay up later than usual. Since the 4th hit on a Thursday
this year, the annual celebration of our Independence from the Brits officially
lasts all through the weekend, but as you can see by the quiet off the American
wires and exchanges, most everyone bugged out of biz even earlier. Those companies
hitting especially hard times made the week-long furlough mandatory to save
a little overhead. Last year on the 4th of July, the USA was its usual young
restless self, taking its patriotism quite for granted. The terrorist activities
last September changed that for at least six months while too many good citizens
cowered in the corner and those with skewed faith and conceit dredged up outmoded
feuds.
Rain On Our Parade
In small town USA, memories are both long and short and life goes on, as usual.
The mayors and judges lead the parades, followed by the beauty pageant winners,
the high school band, brownies and cub scouts, and some smartly dressed cowboys
on smarter-dressed horses. And Volunteer Fire Departments are holding their fundraisers, with more support now than before. And here in Central Texas, we've had wonderful steady, cool, and gentle
rain for days and days. Farmers and ranchers are ecstatic and city people are
fighting floods... but the fireworks are going off as usual, everywhere, in celebration
of American Independence and Freedom. So that's why business will likely come
to a standstill in the USA until Monday... unless you're WalMart, where the
doors are always open.
Making Dreams Come True
For those of you who have read my articles consistently over the last 15-20
years, many of which were spent as US Correspondent for III-Vs Review magazine,
you know my British editors and I had great fun barbing one another each 4th
of July, so I can't let the opportunity go by to point out that this is the
first year when all the compound semi press is now under British control...
except for us here at Compound Semiconductors
Online. We're the same old All-American Kids we started out
as when pioneering the Internet with the original MOCVD.com News(paper).
We've evolved into the compound semi industry's premier resource portal and
the traffic and respect we now receive, proves it. The fact that an ever-increasing
number of my fellow journalists use CompoundSemi News as the starting
source for their indepth stories warms this veteran commentator's heart. Not
only is CompoundSemi Online still totally independent and unique (we
only do online... as a lifelong environmentalist, I couldn't condone killing
a tree if I had to), but we have a long-standing tradition of championing
the independent organizations, especially newly formed independent startup companies.
Why? Because the prime motivators and prime motivation to succeed and push for
the truly new and fresh approaches are generally found in independent organizations.
When you're independent... you march to your own drummer and hum along
to your own tune and fly your own flag. And you cope with the summer floods
as though they were a rare chance to dance barefoot outdoors, splashing puddles
as you celebrate. What all this means is... that when you're truly independent,
you're free to make dreams come true. Especially your own. Happy Independence!
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... |
