Editorial: The CoreTek Mystery Saga: Where's the IP?
 
... The announcement of Bookham's purchase of Nortel's optical assets confirmed what many of our core readership have thought was the real situation... that CoreTek's technology was deemed redundant to Bookham's and that their deal with Nortel was quietly contingent upon Nortel closing the CoreTek facility in Boston, Massachusetts USA....
Jump down to the full story

• Today's news
• Company
  News Releases
• Search
• Events
• CS Stocks
• Comics

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.

Bookham Agrees to Acquire Nortel's Opto Group, Minus CoreTek

October 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 CEATEC

October 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.

Sirenza Puts Dibs on Vari-L

October 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 Tibbetts

October 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 Bookings

October 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 Device

October 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