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Editorial: Will Bill Kroll Take Over the World?
... One of our very favorite and most level headed of all the people in this crazy business, Bill Kroll (William J.), is about to add yet another title to his impressive career in the semiconductor industry. In addition to being President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Matheson...
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May 18, 2004...Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA has announced the largest purchase
commitment in the company's history; a $160 million agreement with Sumitomo Corporation's
Electronic Materials & Equipment Division is part of Sumitomo
Corporation's Media, Electronics and Network Business Unit. The agreement
is to supply LEDs during the fiscal year ending June 2005 and, as part of the
deal, Cree and the Sumitomo Electronic Materials & Equipment division have
extended their current distributorship relationship through Cree's FY-2007.
The purchases are expected to cover Cree's full line of LED products, including
standard brightness, mid-brightness and high brightness devices, including MegaBright,
XBright and XThin LEDs. Commenting on the extended agreement,
Chuck Swoboda, Cree's President and CEO pointed out that this agreement "highlights
the strength
of our partnership with Sumitomo and our Japanese customers. We believe the
growth in Japan is representative of the strong worldwide demand for
our LEDs. New products are driving end customer demand and helping us expand
our relationships with the major LED packagers.”
Commenting on behalf of the Japanese conglomerate, Koichiro Kusano, General
Manager of Sumitomo’s Electronic Materials & Equipment Division stated,
“We expect shipments to Japanese customers during the twelve months
ending June 2004 to exceed our contract commitment, and end customer demand
continues to grow. The technology being delivered by Cree, combined with the
strong market demand for high brightness blue, green and white LEDs in Japan,
continues to be a winning formula for success in the market.” Sumitomo
Corporation's Electronic Materials & Equipment Division is part of Sumitomo
Corporation's Media, Electronics and Network Business Unit, headed by Nobuhide
Nakaido as General Manager. A look at their business
strategy for that unit, as presented by Mr. Nakaido sheds added light to
the importance of the role of blue spectrum LEDs to Sumitomo Corporation's extensive
and interestingly integrated enterprises. He is quoted in that strategy as saying....
"The electronics market is showing signs of recovery, though cost competition
is likely to intensify. We will focus on expanding business in 300mm silicon
wafers, blue and white LED chips, and other high value-added areas, as we concurrently
search out new value-added components. We will also continue to devote efforts
to carbon nanotubes as a future core business." For those wanting to
look into the various businesses this huge Cree customer is involved it, considerable
information is available on the Sumitomo
Corporation website, which includes a list
and description of the various and varied array of entities that do business
under the name of "Sumitomo" which is often rather confusing to those
outside Japan. Company news release
JDSU's Back on the Acquisition TrackMay 18, 2004...They're back... After a prolonged quiet period while the optical side
of the communications business regrouped during its devastating downturn, news
just in that JDS Uniphase has acquired E2O
Communications for approximately $60 million in cash. (Ref our litany
of coverage since 2000). The acquisition is expected to once again put
JDSU on the expansion path in data communications. Founded in 1998 and headquartered
in Calabasas, California USA, E2O develops and manufactures optical transceivers
to support Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 1X-4X Fibre
Channel, 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel, ESCON, ATM and SONET. In February, E20 announced
a 10 gig VCSEL and is currently a supplier to major datacom customers, including
seven that are additive to JDS Uniphase's customer base. Their revenue in recent
quarters has been in excess of $5M. "JDS Uniphase is committed to leadership
in the data communications market," said Don Bossi, president of JDS
Uniphase's Transmission Products Group. "The acquisition of E2O provides
JDS Uniphase with additional expertise in low cost manufacturing, greater economy
of scale, and other infrastructure cost synergies that we believe will lower
costs now and for the future. We believe these synergies and the strong cultural
fit between the two companies make this a lower-risk path to expand our role
in one of our fastest growing markets." H.C. Lee, Ph. D., President
and CEO of E2O, will join JDS Uniphase as VP of the combined datacom business
unit, reporting to Don Bossi. Osram Opto's LEDs Featured in Major Middle East AirportMay 18, 2004...Osram Opto has again come up with a clever application story for HB-LEDs. This
one is a display entertaining airport travelers in the grand, Arab style. The
location is the Dubai International Airport
in Dubai, UAE and what travelers see is a spectacular sight in what's called
the Sheik Rashid terminal. What planners came up with is five not-so-classic
unidentified flying objects, or "UFOs", each of which is six meters
in diameter, and the use of advanced LEDs from Osram Opto have made them appear
to hover in the air, producing outstanding lighting effects, thanks to LED technology
from Osram Opto Semiconductors. In the story of how they were put together,
Osram Opto underscores that, LED modules with special optics that tightly focus
the light beam gave the airport lighting designers wonderful freedom to create
new effects. The lights on these futuristic objects are switched on and off
in a cleverly controlled sequence to simulate UFOs taking off and landing. The
light sources are so small that they can meet the extremely demanding geometrical
requirements of the circular elements. There are more than 8500 LEDs in each
of the five UFOs. The objects are designed to produce a large number of different
lighting effects and clever control of the lights and "smoke" canons
combine to create a space-age atmosphere.
The objects are the result of a joint project involving six different companies.
Under the management of Ontario Light (Innsbruck), who were responsible for
overall lighting design, the five other companies who provided their specialist
know-how were Osram Opto Semiconductors (lighting technology and LED modules),
Herbert Demanega, the Innsbruck-based architects, KCA International (concept
and design), Otto Valenta GmbH from Fieberbrunn (construction, steel structures,
engineering) and Elmar Schrutek of Vienna (control technology). You can see
what the passengers get to see by downloading the high resolution picture on
Osram OS website.
May 31st Deadline for Papers for CS Week in Monterey in OctoberMay 18, 2004...As the compound semi community hopefully knows by now, two technical conferences
are being combined under one "Big Week" this year, to be held in Monterey,
California in the USA throughout the entire week of October 24-28. The conferences
are IEEE's CSICS, affectionately known to
most in the community as the old "GaAs IC" Symposium, and the Institute
of Physic's CS-MAX.
The two conferences are sharing exhibits to make it "one stop shopping"
for those looking for "what's new", especially those involved in compound
semi-related manufacturing and systems integration. CSICS, which is now in its
26th year of existence, is the premier technical conference for compound semi
IC designers. CS-MAX is all about manufacturing. For information on exhibiting,
the contact is Harry Kuemmerle at +1 310-459-4691. Harry, in partnership with
Diane Conti, run VIP Meetings & Conventions and have long been the point
people for the GaAs IC Symposium. They have set up a CS
Week site over VIP's website.
Brad Nelson of Sirenza Microdevices is this year's Symposium Chair for CSICS
and Kevin Kobayashi, also of Sirenza, is Technical Program Vice Chair and arranging
the Short Course. The deadline
for submitting abstracts for CSICS was May 3rd, and plenty of papers were submitted
and are now in the review process. But Kevin reports that there will still be
an opportunity for late news papers, and that this solicitation will be done
through email and the group's CSICS website
and he points out that, "typically these papers have to be stellar,
true late breaking news to get accepted." But the deadline for CS-MAX
papers can still be met, which is May 31st. The new editor of IOP's Compound
Semiconductor print magazine, Michael Hatcher, is serving as the technical
program coordinator for CS-MAX, and can be reached by email at: michael.hatcher@iop.org.
Michael points out that authors must submit abstracts of no more than 500 words,
detailing previously unpublished results. The topics to be covered are listed
on the Call
for Papers, along with details for submission.
JM Cuts Hydrogen Purifier Deal with EpistarMay 18, 2004...Johnson Matthey Gas Purification Technology Group (GPT) of West Chester, Pennsylvania
USA , which specializes in the design, manufacture and distribution of bulk
and point-of-use purifiers, has announced that they will be supplying a model
HTG-40 hydrogen purifier, capable of flowing 30 Nm3/hr to Epistar Corporation.
The purifier will be installed at Epistar’s third fab in the Hsinchu Science
Park in Taiwan. Epistar is a leading Asian LED epilayer manufacturer. This new
hydrogen purifier, along with other Johnson Matthey hydrogen purifiers already
in place, will supply ultrapure hydrogen to the growing number of MOCVD (aka:
MOVPE) reactors at this particular site. 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...
Will Bill Kroll Take Over the World?May 18, 2004...One of our very favorite and most level headed of all the people in this crazy
business, Bill Kroll (William J.), is about to add yet another title to his impressive career in the semiconductor industry. In addition to being President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Matheson Tri-Gas
Inc., which is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey USA, Bill is soon to
be officially appointed to the Board of Directors of Matheson Tri-Gas' parent
company, Nippon Sanso Corporation, one of world's leading industrial gas companies, and among
other things, Nippon Sanso also makes MOCVD reactors. As you may recall from our January
6th news coverage, Matheson Tri-Gas, Nippon Sanso and Taiyo Toyo Sanso are
soon to be merged into one even bigger entity called Nissan Taiyo Corporation.
The appointment of Bill to the Board of Directors will become official as of
their June 29, 2004 shareholders' meeting. Commenting on Bill Kroll's expanding
role within this interestingly expanding international entity, Mr. Hiroshi Taguchi,
President and CEO of Nippon Sanso Corporation, said "The merger of Nippon
Sanso and Taiyo Toyo will have a significant impact on the global industrial
gas business, and Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc., will be our most important subsidiary
company. I have recently elevated Bill Kroll to Chairman of Matheson Tri-Gas,
and would now like him to represent Matheson Tri-Gas on the Nippon Sanso Board
of Directors. Bill is well-known and respected in the global gas industry, with
vast and proven experience. His understanding of gas technology and his vast
network of industry professionals will prove essential to our growth strategies."
The Matheson Tri-Gas press release does an excellent job highlighting what those
of us who know and love about "Kroll" (as he's so often referred to
by his friends, given so many "Bill's" in our world)... his wealth
of experience in the field. 'Kroll's experience spans 30 years and includes
executive management in almost every area of business, including eleven years
of service to Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc. Since March, Kroll has been Chairman, President
& CEO of Matheson Tri-Gas, before which he served as President & CEO
for two years, and before that, as Executive Vice President of Business Development
for about 1 year.'
There's more... much more.... 'He also held Senior Vice President and Vice
President positions from 1986 to 1994. During his hiatus from Matheson Tri-Gas,
Kroll served as Executive Vice President of Business Development at EMCORE,
where he was instrumental in taking that company public. He became a much sought
after spokesperson for the technical community and was key in forming joint
ventures, acquisitions and international distribution agreements. His more notable
accomplishments were the formation of GELcore, the joint venture in solid-state
lighting with General Electric Lighting; the joint venture with Uniroyal Technology
Corp. in the formation of Uniroyal Optoelectronics, the maker of light emitting
diode chips; and the joint venture with Union Miniere in the use of Germanium
substrates for III-V devices. In April of 2004, Kroll was inducted into the
New Jersey High Tech Hall of Fame.' (Ref our
coverage).
What our readers of this column might also enjoy knowing is the personal side
that continues to connect this editor with Bill Kroll. He's the one that convinced
me to put my editorial credentials in the deep freeze for a couple of years
in order to consult to Emcore just after they went public. I set up and oversaw
Emcore's corporate communications. So Kroll ended up "my boss" for
a time in the mid 1960s when so much was happening so fast, like the creation
of GELcore and the huge buildup of MOCVD reactors in Taiwan. On that awesome
Emcore team was Bob Walker and Alan Thompson. Bob, Alan and I are now all independents,
and still working together on projects like Blue
2004. Bill Kroll remains our mentor.
Another tie is Bill Kroll's affiliation with Northwestern, where my mother
and my uncles attended. My uncles were famous Northwestern athletes in their
day. It has remained an incredible university just outside Chicago, Illinois.
Bill did his undergraduate and graduate work at Northwestern. He has also distinguished
himself as an author having now penned more than 50 papers in the areas of physical
and chemical vapor deposition for semiconductor technology and is a member of
IEEE, SEMI, SPIE, SAE, The Electrochemical Society and MRS. He has served on
the Boards of the AeA, CGA, Princeton Photonics, Optoelectronics Materials Center
and Matheson Tri-Gas, Inc.
So our congratulations, once again, to Bill Kroll. One of the nicest guys you'd
ever want to know. So many of us in this industry are proud to call him a true
friend.
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... |
