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November 16, 2004...Oriol, Inc., one of the more promising of the USA's blue spectrum LED startups
that didn't quite make it to maturity, was clearly ahead of its time. It stumbled
in a controversial and rather flashy Korean-related merger that landed the company
in the USA bankruptcy courts (and the Korean bad guy in a Korean jail) but Oriol's
outstanding IP lives on and will now go to the highest bidder. Here's the scoop,
and the scope of the IP now up for grabs, as promised (reference our June
8th editorial "Play
Nice," Says Uncle Burt), in the following Special Report to
our LIGHTimes and CompoundSemi News readers....
The bidding for Oriol's IP could indeed be very exciting. Why? Because companies
like Lumileds, Epistar, UEC, Nichia... you name it... all have been experimenting
with similar structures to Oriol's core IP. Vertical LED products, for example,
are on the roadmap (the quiet version not generally shown beyond confidential
quarters) of almost every company playing in the GaN-related LED field.
If you're one of those interested, you'll want to carefully read the IP itself,
which has just been posted on the bankruptcy trustee's website.
The full pdf text of the letter relating to the sale and the patents can be
accessed by clicking
on this page. The IP up for auction includes one granted patent, # 6,744,196
and others that have been "allowed" and still others that are pending.
Many of these were on the edge of abandonment, when Carol Wu, the insightful
bankruptcy trustee, hired Oriol’s IP attorney, Song Jung, to bring them
back to life. Song is highly respected and very knowledgeable in the compound
semi space. The work he and Ms. Wu have done in this case sets a new and higher
standard for bankruptcy cases, and very probably will end up with all the Oriol
creditors being paid what they are justly due.
Oriol's IP consists of various vertical chip structure methods which
can be created after removal of sapphire substrate. Sapphire is known good for
light extraction, since it’s transparent and has a lower index than GaN,
but... it’s electrically insulating and has high thermal resistance. Low
thermal resistance is critical for high power devices, where current density
is pushed to the limit. Those are the physical facts of LED life. Cree and Osram
have been building vertical devices on SiC for many years, but SiC is regarded
as more expensive than sapphire (especially if you don't grow your own),
it has a high index, and becomes more opaque as doping is increased. What that
means is that there's a necessary tradeoff between brightness and forward voltage.
Osram’s ThinGaN is reputed in quiet quarters to possibly be the
first vertical (via sapphire removal) product on the market next year,
but it is also known, as stated above, that others have been experimenting with
similar structures (Lumileds, Epistar, UEC, Nichia, …). That's what potentially
makes the Oriol IP so exciting. Vertical products are likely to appear in the
development roadmap of every GaN LED maker in the near future, and the more
good IP one can grab hold of, the more leverage they have in the licensing game.
Ah... but there's more. The next logical step after vertical products
are brought into production (you have to dig a bit deeper into those roadmaps
for the small print) is a wafer scale white chip, and Oriol also
applied for patents in this area. With the sapphire removed, the light emitting
areas of chips can be completely and uniformly covered with a yellow conversion
material (phosphor or otherwise) and those devices can then be diced and sent
to the packaging line as white emitters. This production method is aimed at
eliminating the headaches of today’s phosphor mixing and coating, which
often results in non-uniform white light, high yield loss, and dozens of side
bins in the lamp packagers’ inventory. For technical information regarding
the patents, you can contact Song Jung, Esq or Mark Kresloff, Esq. at McKenna,
Long & Aldridge at +1 202 496-7500. For general auction information, contact
Carol Wu, Trustee at 408 404-7040/cwu@cwutrustee.com or Barry Milgrom, Esq.
at Luce Forward at 415 356-4600/bmilgrom@luce.com.
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Color Kinetics Extends Core IP with 659 PatentNovember 15, 2004...Color Kinetics of Boston, Massachusetts USA has been awarded a patent that
extends the coverage of the company's core technology that underlies its basic
intelligent SS lighting systems. The US patent, #6,806,659
which was applied for by CK founders George Mueller and Ihor Lys back in September
of 2000, was issued October 19th and broadens the protection of the first patent
ever issued to Color Kinetics in January 2000. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... Skyworks Ramps Production of WCDMA Power Amplifier Module in Support of a Tier One Handset OEMNovember 15, 2004...When it comes to the power amp sector of the compound semi industry, often
the last graphs of a news release convey the hook we're after. In the case of
Skyworks, they always do a great job of reminding the handset makers just what's
driving the business... GaAs HBTs and InGaP emitters. While many may not care
what's actually in the module... only what it does, the reality
is that the compound semi parts are what continue to make the handset market
grow, with HBTs and LEDs brightening and adding new functionality to handheld
communication devices the world over. Skywork's latest offering is a line called
"LIPA" that extends Skyworks' CDMA leadership position to 3G handsets.
The LIPA line, which is again based on Skywork's GaAs HBT and InGaP technologies,
is evidently gaining traction, especially in European, Asian and North American
markets. Skyworks has received received volume purchase orders from a tier one
handset OEM for its WCDMA PA module.
LIPA modules are packaged in Skyworks' low-cost, 4mm x 4mm x 1.5mm laminate-based
multi-chip module (MCM) packages that contain all active circuitry, including
onboard bias circuitry, as well as input and output interstage matching. It
also eliminates power-consuming isolator circuitry, significantly reducing cost
and board space while dramatically increasing talk time. "Given Skyworks'
long standing leadership position within CDMA, we are pleased to be ramping
production of a PA module that supports customers' needs for next generation
handsets," said Brian M. Daly, marketing director of RF Solutions for
Skyworks. "With its dual mode platform and small form factor, we are
enabling and delivering integrated semiconductor solutions that are driving
cell phone capabilities from simple voice services to built-in cameras, MP3
functionality and other multimedia applications." Company
news release
OptiLED Debuts Designer Dimmable and HIVE
LIGHTimes StaffNovember 15, 2004...The recent LDI 2004 show in Las Vegas, Nevada USA was evidently very successful
for OptiLED of Irvine, California USA. The innovative systems integrator of
HB-LEDs debuted two new lines at the show, both with catchy names that caught
the attention of the entertainment industry crowd. The first product was called
The Designer Dimmable, which is an LED lamp that features lighting intensity
and distribution control in a familiar form factor, with outer dimensions that
are identical to an ordinary halogen MR16. Details are in the Oct.
28th news release, the highlight of which, for our readership, is that the
new halogen-competitive lamp offers full performance at 12 volts DC or AC and
dimming capability from 10 volts down to three volts, where it operates at candle
glow. At full power, the unit requires less than 2 watts. The second product,
called the HIVE, for High Intensity Vorticular Enclosure modular system, delivers
three times as much light as typical so-called “high power” LED lighting,
and is the newest member of OptiLED’s new Modular Optical Array Series.
Details are in that news
release which, because of the reaction to HIVE by OptiLED's peer companies,
we amplify and analyze for our LIGHTimes
2nd Page members. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... All Aboard for LED-Driven Locomotive EngineersNovember 15, 2004...GELcore of Valley View, Ohio USA has created a robust TR3 LED signal module
that's found its way on the Amtrak (the USA's major train system) throughout
the Northeast Corridor where Amtrak locomotive engineers are guiding their trains.
The engineers and maintenance and repair staff responsible for the upkeep of
catenary hardware in the region seem to love the new HB-LED-based system. Amtrak's
C&S Repair Shop has evidently been retrofitting incandescent wayside signals,
highway railroad crossings and control panel lighting throughout the system--in
Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and Maryland--with low-voltage, long-life devices
that include GELcore TR3 LED Signal Modules. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... Cree Sues Alma Mater (NSCU) Over GaN-Related Licenses to NitronexNovember 10, 2004...A very interesting suit was filed recently by
Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA against the university from which it
sprang in 1987, North Carolina State University. Complete details and a full
perspective of this newest Cree suit can be found in our November 10th editorial,
Perspective
on Cree's Suit Against Its Alma Mater. The editorial appears, this issue, on your viewing left. Note that further perspective
on this will be included in our upcoming issue of LIGHTinsight, which is a monthly
supplement for our LIGHTimes
2nd Page members. Alfalight Logs In Record Power Conversion Efficiency at LEOSNovember 10, 2004...The annual Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS)
2004 meeting is taking place in Puerto Rico this week and as part of the show,
Alfalight Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin USA is announcing what they say is a new
world record for power conversion efficiency in 976 nm diode laser bars. Developed
with support from the USA's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
under the Super High Efficiency Diode Sources (SHEDS) program, Alfalight has
demonstrated a 50 watt, 976 nm laser bar with 71% power conversion efficiency
(PCE) at 25°C and 73% efficiency at 10°C. These results were presented
by Manoj Kanskar, Alfalight's VP of R&D at the Wednesday morning. According
to Alfalight, their achievement puts Alfalight well ahead of schedule in the
Phase I SHEDS challenge to deliver 65% PCE diode laser bars to DARPA by March
of 2005, and approaches the 80% PCE targeted for September 2006 as part of SHEDS
Phase II. “The efficiency of high-performance diode lasers developed
through the SHEDS program is critical to the development of high power diode-pumped
laser systems that are important to both DARPA and to the commercial laser industry,”
commented Dr. Martin Stickley, SHEDS program manager at DARPA. Next step for
Alfalight is integrate these unique high-efficiency Aluminum-Free Active-region
(ALFA) diode laser designs into their next generation of commercial products.
Technical details and more about the SHEDS program are in the company
news release. Lumileds Partners with Parent to Develop Modular LED Solutions for Automotive IndustryNovember 10, 2004...Lumileds Lighting of San Jose, California USA, and Royal Philips Electronics,
one of Lumileds parents (the other being Agilent) have announced a new partnership
arrangement to jointly develop and market new modular LED lighting solutions
for the automotive industry. The new lighting solution auto industry package
will incorporate Lumileds Luxeon LED technology with the design,
development and integration expertise from a Philips division called Philips
Automotive Lighting, which is geared specifically to provide the SSL industry
with automotive lighting solutions. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... 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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