Sony Launches Blue Laser Optical DriveApril 14, 2003...Sony Electronics of San Jose, California USA recently announced their new blue
laser optical data storage disc drive and cartridge-type disc media (both rewriteable
and write-once versions), which will be demonstrated for the first time at the
Association of Information and Image Management (AIIM) conference in New York
from April 7 through April 9. The new media will offer 23.3 GB of capacity per
disc, while the new 5.25 inch drives sustain a maximum transfer rate of 9 MB/sec.
By leveraging the exceptional storage capacity of blue spectrum laser diodes,
this new entry to blue spectrum applications provides an ideal solution for
professional data-intensive applications such as document and medical imaging,
email archiving, enterprise content management, multimedia projects, graphics
design and audio/video editing. "The new blue laser optical disc drive and
media will meet the capacity needs of storage users who have outgrown the 9.1
GB magneto-optical (MO) per disc capacity offered in the market today,"
said Rick Thong, marketing manager for storage solutions at Sony Electronics
in San Jose. "In addition to offering more than twice the capacity in the
same drive form-factor, the new drive and media also bring fast access times
to customers who demand a high performance solution for quickly accessing and
transferring files." Mr. Thong added that Sony hopes to bring a second-generation
drive and media to the market by 2005 that will feature 50 GB of capacity with
a transfer rate of 18 MB/sec, followed by a third-generation drive and media
featuring 100 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 36 MB/sec. Evaluation units
of the new internal blue laser optical drive (model BW-F101) and media (rewritable
PDDRW23 and write-once PDDWO23) are expected to start shipping to OEMs this
summer for around $3,000 per drive and around $45 per disc. Both an external
drive and a Sony-branded version of the drive are expected to be brought to
the market before the end of the year. Company
news release.
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Osram Hosts Ribbon Cutting in RegensburgApril 14, 2003...Osram GmbH opened their new optoelectronic chip factory April 7th in Regensburg,
Germany projecting a doubling in production capacity by 2005. Noting that advanced
LEDs make up a progressively larger percentage of their optoelectronic devices,
the new factory will be producing HB-LEDs, laser diodes and sensors. Dr. Wolf-Dieter
Bopst, President of Osram, predicted that "This will give us the platform
to become number one in the mid-term in this dynamic growth market." Osram
invested approximately 120 million euros on the new factory and is slated to
create approximately 500 new local jobs in the mid-term. The Regensburg location
was selected because Osram already has a highly trained workforce in the city
and the region has a good supply of well-trained prospective employees. Osram
also underscored the importance of having their factory in close proximity to
their development department, which is already located in Regensburg. The new
factory was built on a 9 acre site with space for further expansion. The current
cleanroom floor area is 3300 m2, supplementing the original and existing site
in Regensburg-West which was deemed too small to cope with the rapid growth
in capacity. The two factories will now work in parallel until the entire operation
transfers to the new site in two years time. Osram Opto will be one of the key
international blue spectrum device manufacturers presenting at Blue
2003 "Behind the Hot Apps" event June 11-13 in Dallas,
Texas USA and we look forward to hearing more about their plans and projections
for blue spectrum device manufacturing and about their hottest applications.
Company news release. April 14, 2003...Add another new name to the growing list of GaN substrate suppliers. This one
is Lumilog which is located Vallauris, France, in the Technological Park of
Sophia Antipolis, 20 Km from France's Nice Airport, and they've just announced
the onset of production of a novel Fe doped semi insulating GaN substrate. The
new substrate is a 4 micron thick single crystal GaN deposited on a 2-inch diameter
sapphire substrate. The new product is targeted primarily for substrate applications
for AlGaN/GaN HEMTs, but Lumilog also noted that this type high quality GaN
substrate is becoming a requirement for the fabrication of high end UV laser
diodes for next generation DVDs, HB-LEDs high frequency transistors for cellular
phone base stations as well as a variety of defense applications. Lumilog also
manufactures cost effective GaN epiwafers on sapphire with low dislocations
density utilizing the MOVPE technique. Using proprietary processes Lumilog also
produces Epitaxial Lateral Overgrown GaN on 2” sapphire substrates with a very
low dislocations density between stripes and is developing bulk quality free-standing
GaN substrates. Details and contact information is included in Lumilog's company
news release.
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Uni Light Continues Blue Spectrum Ramp with New Emcore GaNzilla ToolApril 14, 2003...Picking up from our initial coverage of Uni Light Technology (Ref: Uni
Light Technology Begins Aggressive Expansion) Uni Light has most recently
selected an Emcore GaNzilla MOCVD tool for their continued ramp of high volume
blue spectrum, GaN-based HB-LED production. The sale of this newest tool to
Uni Light, which is located in Taiwan's the Taoyuan Kuishan Industrial Zone,
was officially announced today. The Uni Light epitaxial foundry is specializing
in the production of epiwafers and chips for optoelectronic applications, such
as traffic signals, outdoor displays, and electronics backlighting and the incorporation
of the GaNzilla tool into their manufacturing facility will expand Uni Light's
current capacity to manufacture GaN HB-LED materials. According to Mr. Hun-Huang
Liu, President of Uni Light, "The GaNzilla system will play a key role in
this expansion as we focus on blue, green, and UV LED solutions. From a production
standpoint, we chose the EMCORE platform because of the exceptionally high throughput
levels we can achieve with the GaNzilla. We are confident that the high degree
of material uniformity will match that from our existing EMCORE TurboDisc D180
reactors. The GaNzilla™ will clearly give us a competitive advantage for GaN
growth." Company
news release. Japan's Hoya Backs Scotland's KamelianApril 9, 2003...According to a report
in LightReading, by Peter Heywood, Founding Editor of LightReading,
Glasgow-based Kamelian Ltd., which is
regarded as an aggressive startup specializing in integrated InP optical amplifiers,
has scored another $6.7 million in funding, led by Hoya
Corporation, which is based in Tokyo, Japan. Hoya has long been an important
part of the compound semi industry infrastructure as a provider of various glass
products and laser equipment and last spring, announced
a new venture, Hoya AST, dedicated to producing cubic (3C) SiC. According to
Peter's coverage, investors joining Hoya in the $6.4 million round of funding
were Kamelian's existing investors: 3i Group plc, Goldman Sachs & Co., and Lightspeed
Venture Partners. Of special note to our readers is where Peter quotes Kamelian's
CEO, Paul May as saying that Hoya's interest is in InP rather than components
for telecom applications, which is the market that Kamelian has focused on to
date, and that Kamelian itself is already investigating non-telecom applications
for its developments. For details, we refer you direct to LightReading's
coverage, titled: Kamelian
Scores a Coup. Sandia Develops Cantilever Epi Process for Blue Spectrum LEDs & GaN HEMTsApril 9, 2003...Sandia National Labs of Albuquerque, New Mexico USA has announced a new cantilever
GaN epitaxy growth process developed by a team of Sandia researchers that equates
to brighter, more efficient, green, blue, and white lights than previously accomplished.
Samples of the new cantilever epitaxy substrates have already been supplied
to LED manufacturers for testing, as a means of encouraging future licensing.
The cantilever epitaxy program at Sandia is multidimensional in scope and part
of an internal three-year $6.6 million Laboratory Directed Research and Development
(LDRD) Grand Challenge. Funding for the program also comes from a grant from
the Department of Energy Office of Building Technologies for a collaborative
project with Lumileds Lighting, a joint venture between Agilent Technologies
and Phillips Lighting. Cantilever epitaxy of GaN is of interest for several
programs at Sandia, including their electronic components developments of HEMTs
which are being developed for potential use in miniature synthetic aperture
radar systems (SAR) and high-efficiency solid-state lighting being investigated
in the Grand Challenge LDRD. Gallium nitride can also be made to emit ultraviolet
(UV) light, and compact solid-state UV emitters would be useful for detecting
biological and chemical toxins under the USA's Homeland Security initiative,
a current prime directive at Sandia. Company news release. DoCoMo Makes the Dick Tracy Watch/Phone RealApril 14, 2003...The old USA comic strip legend detective, Dick Tracy, who never went out on
a case without his bright yellow coat and his wristwatch-style cellphone, was
obviously way ahead of his time... but right on target with where the wireless
world was headed. Thanks to a fun and helpful article in Wireless NewsFactor,
titled DoCoMo
Wraps a Cell Phone Around Your Wrist by Jay Wrolstad, we get to see
Dick Tracy's vision become reality. It seems NTT's DoCoMo is tailoring just
such a wristphone for the Japanese market. It's called "Wristomo."
The wearer pushes buttons on each side of the watch face and out pops a functional
handset fully equipped with email access, Internet access at 64 kbps, a hook-in
to a PC and of course... DoCoMo i-mode. According to the article, Wristomo is
being tailored for Japan's young adults. The grey metallic, waterpoof watch
phone measures a mere 171.5 by 40.4 by 18.5 millimeters and weighs 113 grams
and offers 120 minutes of continuous talk time, or 200 minutes in standby mode.
No price tag has yet been set, but plans are to launch an initial 500 sets soon.
And is anyone else doing this? You bet. Jay reports that "similar watch
phones also have been introduced by Korea-based manufacturers Samsung and Telson,
with Samsung recently unveiling a model that operates on the global GSM/GPRS
wireless network standard" which goes on sale in Europe later this year.
The fun quote at the end tells it like it is. Jay asked Yankee Group analyst
John Jackson for his response to where nanotech, system on a chip (and thereby
the compounds) are heading things, and Jackson said, "Handset technology
is finding its way into more consumer devices. We have moved beyond the day
when companies like Motorola made all of their phones. The handset has become
an electronics product, although the watch phone is a techno-geek device with
very limited appeal." Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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