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October 8, 2002...Sensors Unlimited, a brilliant compound semi industry pioneering company in
Princeton, New Jersey USA, is helping fuel a possible resurgence of startup
(and "restart") energy and synergy that seems to be centered
in New Jersey, historically known as "Gallium Gardens" before the
downturn took divots in that turf. Sensors Unlimited is back its independence
from Finisar Corporation for $6.1 million. Back when Finisar acquired Sensors
Unlimited, the deal was valued at approximately $700 million (ref . Oct.
17 2000 coverage.).
Finisar is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California in the heart of Silicon Valley
on the USA's west coast, which has suffered even more than other areas from
the communications downturn. Sensors Unlimited will retain their name, which
is as familiar around the compound semi community show circuit as Sensors Unlimited's
Greg Olson is. Sensors will essentially license their own technology in a royalty
free arrangement and concentrate on military, industrial spectroscopy and communications
markets. Finisar will retain ownership of all of Sensors' intellectual property
and will transfer all manufacturing and development activities for positive-intrinsic-negative
(PIN) diodes and avalanche photodiodes (APDs) to other facilities within Finisar.
Compound semi industry professionals know Sensors Unlimited best by their show-stopping
innovative flagship InGaAs product, which we've profiled as The
Camera That Sees Through Things. "We're going back to our small business
roots," explains Greg Olsen,
founder, President and CEO of Sensors Unlimited. "Sensors Unlimited built
its business on InGaAs photodiode arrays and cameras, primarily for the industrial
spectroscopy and military markets. Our focus shifted when telecommunications
companies discovered that our photodiode arrays could be used to monitor optical
networks. However, in the current economic conditions, we must diversify our
market focus to achieve profitability and long-term revenue growth." More
details are in the Sensors Unlimited news
release. In addition and tying this all in with other recent news
from New Jersey, Greg Olsen also serves on the board
of directors of neighboring startup ASIP,
which is funded in part by Multilink, also a New Jersey neighbor to ASIP and
Sensors Unlimited. Prior to founding Sensors Unlimited, Greg established Epitaxx
which was acquired by Nippon Sheet Glass.
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Bookham Agrees to Acquire Nortel's Opto Group, Minus CoreTekOctober 8, 2002...With no mention of Nortel's prestigious CoreTek group in Boston, which Nortel
abruptly and quietly closed down recently, Bookham Technologies of Oxfordshire,
UK this week ended speculation and announced that it will, indeed, integrate
most of Nortel Network's ailing opto business, in much the same manner Bookham
acquired and integrated Marconi's ailing opto arm last February. The deal, which
is structured largely as a stock arrangement positioning Nortel as the major
shareholder of Bookham, and including both short and long-range supply agreements
that primarily involve the incorporation and consolidation of Nortel's operations
in England and Zurich, plus Nortel's InP fab in Ottowa. Only $10 million in
actual cash is involved, which, if Bookham's shareholders approve the plan at
their November 5 meeting (and if the related stock exchanges also give the appropriate
nods), will result in Bookham growing over double in size. That won't remain
the case, however, as a 20% reduction of the acquired workforce was also announced
in today's conference call. Because this is a smaller company acquiring something
larger than itself, the deal is rather unconventional and is being handled using
terms such as "combined" since supply agreements are heavily involved,
we encourage those interested in this event to review details direct from Bookham
in their official news
release, plus considerably more public details can be gleaned by listening
to the online replay of the conference
call. Color commentary on how this announcement relates to the closing of
CoreTek and rapid displacement of 160 people is included in this issue's McDonald
Report editorial. Strong Showing of Blue Spectrum Laser-Based DVDs at CEATECOctober 8, 2002...A number of Blu-ray Disc supporters, along with Toshiba and NEC's proposed
DVD approach, were on display at CEATEC Japan 2000 last week. Providing us all
with an excellent roundup
report was Masayuki Arai, Staff Editor of Nikkei
Electronics. We highly recommend those involved in the blue spectrum
laser diode development and integration sector read that report.
(Great pictures!) Of special interest to our community was the following
excerpt: "The number of Blu-ray products from Sony stood out. The other
firms were each displaying a single Blu-ray device among the wares at their
booths. However Sony had three lined up. In addition, another Sony player was
on loan to TDK's booth, and Hitachi's player was Sony-made as well. About half
of the Blu-ray players on display were made by Sony. According to optical disc
technologists at the show, one of the important determining factors of whether
the new technology moves from development to full commercialization is the number
of devices available. The experts' opinion is that Sony has achieved this level,
whereas the other makers are still at the prototype stage." Masayuki Arai
also reported
on Toshiba's system. (Ref. our Aug. 27 coverage
"Toshiba and NEC Take Case for Additional Standard Before DVD Forum")
Our public appreciation, once again, to NEAsia
Online for providing such excellent coverage.
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Sirenza Puts Dibs on Vari-LOctober 8, 2002...Sirenza Microdevices, an active member of our compound semi-based wireless
sector and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California USA, has entered into discussions
that could lead to the acquisition of a Denver, Colorado USA company called
Vari-L which supplies the system integrator community with products deemed complementary
to Sirenza's. The initial relationship involves Sirenza providing Vari-L with
a secured bridge loan facility of up to $5.3 million. In connection with the
loan agreement, Vari-L has agreed to negotiate a potential acquisition exclusively
with Sirenza through March 2003, subject to limited exceptions, and has granted
Sirenza the right of first refusal on competing acquisition offers. Under the
terms of the secured bridge loan facility, Vari-L plans to draw $1.3 million
to retire a current loan facility. Vari-L may draw additional funds from time
to time to support its general working capital requirements. "We envision
a number of market, channel, technological, and product synergies with Vari-L,
which we believe will benefit the customers and stockholders of both companies,"
said Robert Van Buskirk, President and CEO of Sirenza. "Vari-L's VCO (voltage-controlled
oscillator) components, PLL (phase-locked loop) modules and signal processing
components are commonly deployed beside our products in wireless communications
infrastructure equipment. Also, Vari-L's sales channels are highly complementary
to our channels and global end-customer base. We look forward to reaching a
definitive acquisition agreement in the fourth quarter." More details are
included in Sirenza's news
release. Structured Materials Awarded TibbettsOctober 8, 2002...Gary Tompa's Structured Materials
(SMI) has received a coveted Tibbetts
Award for development work on their obviously interesting and important
oxide MOCVD systems. Tibbetts
Awards Tibbetts Awards, named for Roland Tibbetts - the acknowledged as
the father of the USA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program -
these prestigious national awards are made annually to small firms, projects,
organizations, and individuals judged to exemplify the very best in SBIR achievement.
To date, SMI has received 11 Phase I SBIRs. Gary was an early employee of Emcore
and went on to establish SMI, which offers for sale: systems, components, materials,
and process development services. SMI has in-house multi-reactor deposition
systems and analytic capabilities, has developed a range of strategic partnerships
to develop and implement MOCVD technology and looks forward to continuing to
grow such advantageous relationships. SMI’s MOCVD focus is on complex oxides
such as ferroelectries, electro-optics materials, and transparent conductive
oxide although the company is expanding into additional material areas as the
market demands. Much of SMI’s MOCVD development projects have been funded (in
excess of $5 Million to date) with support from U.S. Missile Defense Agency
(MDA) with administration by the Air Force, the Army, the Navy and NASA; the
NSF; industry; and CRADAs with federal and commercial organizations and laboratories,
providing SMI with a wide range of development capabilities. SMI is also developing
thermophotovoltaic devices with Sarnoff and other organizations based on our
unique processing capabilities for exceptional thermal energy power generation
and corresponding applications. SatCom Weighs In with $19.4 M in New BookingsOctober 8, 2002...Power electronics player, SatCon Technology Corporation of Cambridge,
Massachusetts USA, which has been in the forefront of MCM packaging of high power devices, has provided its industry peers and shareholders a bit of
good news to kick off this earnings report period with the announcement that
they have received approximately $19.4 million in bookings, awards and letters
of intent during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002. New bookings totaled $12
million, new awards totaled $6.0 million including the recently announced $5.2
million integrated power system program, which is in final contract negotiations.
Letters of intent totaled $1.4 million with an expectation that these will be
formally booked in the next few weeks. More details are included in the SatCon news
release. ASIP Emerges with Introduction of Initial 1310nm InP Integrated Photonics DeviceOctober 4, 2002...A new optical communication device fab has come onto everyone's radar screen this week, symbolizing that the comm sector may be picking up afterall. It's named ASIP,
it's based in Somerset, New Jersey USA and it's emerging as the hot new startup
of the season boasting the capability of marketing a very sought-after uncooled
10Gb/s 1310nm Electro-absorption Modulated Laser (EML). Called the 10T101, this
uniquely grown epi-based device is billed as significantly improving the quality
and design margin of 10 Gb/s data links, while eliminating the need for power-hungry
thermoelectric coolers, which are normally required when using EML sources.
ASIP's 10T101 is targeted at the next-generation of optical transceivers that
will serve both the enterprise and telecom markets. This particular startup
(see editorial profile this issue, "Meet a Very Cool InP Startup
Called ASIP) has made its industry debut with sample quantities of their
10T101 available immediately, with volume production slated for the first quarter
of 2003. "With the 10T101 EML, ASIP is simultaneously demonstrating the unique
potential of its technology platform, while delivering to the marketplace a
highly sought-after product," said Mike Decelle, ASIP president and CEO.
Next up appears to be 1550nm devices. For more details, we refer you to their
initial news 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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