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Editorial: Spire Now Open to Licensing Key HBT Processing Patents
... Spire Corporation of Bedford, Massachusetts USA was one of the handful of companies that pioneered HBT processing on MOCVD back in the good old days when HBTs first came on the scene. Some of you new to the business might not even realize that Spire pioneered MOCVD reactor technology...
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December 23, 2004...One of the parent companies of Lumileds Lighting, Philips (the other being
Agilent) has broken precedence and reported the financial performance of its
offspring, and that performance was impressive. For the 2004 fiscal year that
just ended for Philips, Lumileds reported sales of $280 million, representing
a 43% annual growth, and their net income was $62 million, which as a percentage
of sales, represents 22% of sales. The figures were released during a presentation
to analysts by Peter van Strijp, Executive VP and CEO BU Solid State Lighting
at Philips on the occasion of their annual Analysts
Day. This was the first time Lumileds' revenues have been publicly reported
and the San Jose, California based Lumileds is justly proud of their numbers,
as is their parent company, Philips, which clearly made Solid State Lighting
(SSL) the hot topic of this particular Analysts
Day gathering in Europe. The presenters included the highest ranking executives
of Philips and the entire proceedings are available online, a webcast replay
of which will be available
online via this location for a year. An entire section was devoted to Philips'
strategic view of the SSL industry and Philips' role in it. Commentary on the
entire presentation and on Lumileds' performance and role in the industry will
be covered in detail in an upcoming McDonald Report. In the
meantime, we recommended you hit the above hotlinks and view the Philips presentations
for yourself. The pictures alone tell an incredible success story for SSL applications. Fujitsu Announces Results of GaN on Aluminum Nitride HEMT DevelopmentDecember 23, 2004...Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. reported their GaN on AlN results at IEDM last week
and the details will be of considerable interest to those working on GaN-based
electronic device designs as well as the GaN-related alternative substrate development
community, which includes sapphire, SiC, native GaN, and "other" of
which AlN appears to be gaining recognition as well as silicon. We'll be reporting
more on Fujitsu's progress as well as Nitronex' devices which recently ran successfully
through the TriQuint process which were revealed at our recent Outlook conference.
Until then, we point you to the Fujitsu company
news release. Jacques Pankove Officially Retires and Signs Astralux Over to Rande Treece
Jo Ann McDonald, Founding EditorDecember 20, 2004...GaN LED and HBT pioneer, Jacques
Pankove, who has often been honored by our industry, has recently officially
retired from Astralux, the company
from which he has so wonderfully served the wide bandgap community since his
retirement from serving as a Professor at the University of Colorado in the
USA. Indeed a world citizen and longtime good friend to this editor, Jacques
and his wife Ethyl, who has been his partner in Astralux, continue to enjoy
good health and are watching the company they formed now be run by Randolph
E. Treece, Ph.D (Rande) whom Jacques has mentored in recent years to take over
the company. The right time has evidently come, and as of October, Rande became
owner of Astralux. What Astralux does is what it has always done, leverage its
core expertise in research and development and help young companies grow and
successfully spin out from Astralux, as they did with their first company, PowerSicel,
Inc., back in December of 2001. What PowerSicel did was leverage Jacques and
Rande's expertise in SiC transistor technology and a commitment of funds with
that of an Astralux employee, Dr. John Torvik, who serves as PowerSicel's co-founder
and President/CEO). For this, Astralux received an equity stake in PowerSicel
and commenced to raise additional funds to commercialize the transistor technology.
PowerSicel and Astralux continue to work closely together.
That model will be repeated often at Astralux in the years ahead and more people
like John Torvik are precisely what Rande's looking for. Astralux is essentially
a cutting edge hothouse. They bring technology from the concept stage
to the point that a high-growth company can be essentially birthed (spun off)
from Astralux. "We will grow value in Astralux by repeating this process.
We are currently working on the early stages of three main technology families.
The first is hybrid substrates, the combination of thin slices of one material
bonded to another to achieve the benefits of both. We have been funded by ONR
and the Air Force to develop SiC related hybrid substrates," said Rande
Treece. The second area of research involves the exciting devices that can be
developed based vacuum electron emission from negative electron affinity (NEA)
surfaces. "Through the appropriate engineering it should be possible
to create an electronic cooler, or a direct-thermal-to-electrical converter,
or (hopefully) both using GaN-based NEA materials. We are currently funded by
DARPA to work on this and have also received funds from the Office of the Secretary
of Defense related to these activities," he explained. "The
third area is based on UV-based bio-defense systems based on electron-pumped
UV emission. We are working with California-based Photon Systems, Inc. to develop
a UV laser that will be included in an analysis tool to detect biological agents.
This work is supported by DARPA. We are also working on a bio-decontamination
tool with the Air Force." Astralux currently has 7 issued patents and
5 in the hopper, which we covered in detail in our latest issue of LIGHTinsight.
Rande can be reached via www.Astraluxinc.com
his tel is: +1 303-413-1440 and email is rtreece@astraluxinc.com.
Endwave Transceivers Headed for Nokia FlexiHopper Microwave RadiosDecember 23, 2004...Endwave of Sunnyvale, California USA has signed a new contract amendment with
the Networks division of Nokia, valued at several million dollars, which expands
the range of frequencies currently supplied by Endwave. The transceivers will
be installed in both the Nokia FlexiHopper and next generation Nokia
FlexiHopper Plus microwave radios for use in Nokia's cellular networks
in Europe, Asia and Latin America over the next two years. Endwave's transceivers
are customized to seamlessly integrate with Nokia's FlexiHopper radios
by combining the high frequency transmit and receive functions of a radio system
into one package, which can be used for many communication needs in cellular,
fixed and dedicated networks. "This follow-on agreement expands upon
the range of frequencies Endwave provides to Nokia and further strengthens our
position as a key supplier of next-generation cellular broadband wireless subsystems,"
said Ed Keible, President and CEO of Endwave Corporation. Company
news release Opto Tech Tagged to Build Gigantic LED Display for 2008 Olympics in BeijingDecember 23, 2004...Opto Tech of Taiwan has received the honor of building what looks to be the
largest LED display built to date, measuring approximately 6,000 square meters
-- 200 meters in length and 30 meters in width -- for promoting the Bejing Olympics
and serve as a major focal point at the International Trade Center. According
to a Dec. 21 DigiTimes report,
Opto Tech intends to invest $20 million to complete the Bejing project, and
that other major cities in China are likely to commission similar giant screen
displays. According to the report, Opto Tech also told DigiTimes that
they've begun volume shipments of Nichia-branded blue spectrum LEDs. 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...
Spire Now Open to Licensing Key HBT Processing PatentsDecember 20, 2004...Spire Corporation of Bedford, Massachusetts
USA was one of the handful of companies that pioneered HBT processing on MOCVD
back in the good old days when HBTs first came on the scene. Some of you new
to the business might not even realize that Spire pioneered MOCVD reactor technology
and still works wonders on their proprietary platforms producing extraordinary
compound semi based products for the solar photovoltaic and biomedical industries.
And now that the Bandwidth foundry
is again under the Spire wing, this pioneering compound semi company is reentering
the mainstream of MOCVD activity. To celebrate that reentry, Spire is letting
it be known to the compound semi community that their two key HBT process related
patents are available for license. Mind you, there are undoubtedly a number
of companies already using the Spire process, so checking ones current process
carefully and comparing it with these patents might be a very good idea.
The two Spire USA patents on HBT processing are: No. 5,116,455,
entitled 'Process of Making Strain-Free Carbon-Doped Epitaxial Layers and
Products so Made' and No. 5,231,298
entitled 'GaAs Device having a Strain-Free C-Doped Layer'. Both were
developed by Spire's founder, President and CEO, Roger Little, and Ed Gagnon,
General Manager of Spire's Bandwidth Semiconductor. Ed can be reached at egagnon@bandwidthsemi.com
or his direct tel in New Hampshire USA is +1 603 689-1226. Bandwidth is one
of those true pure play foundries that specializes in highly customized work,
mainly on designs for high end defense systems. Bandwidth is doing an excellent
business these days. In talking with Ed, he explained that the two Spire patents
are an ancillary asset of their parent company, but since Ed was in on the original
development of them in the early 1990s, he's an excellent source of detailed
information. To follow is what he sent us as a description of the two patents
now up for licensing by all those companies worldwide which are likely using
the process anyway.
U.S. Patent No. 5,116,455
was issued to Spire in May of 1992 and describes a process for making devices
without lattice strain with doped p-type epitaxial layers. A carbon-doped p-type
layer forms the base of a GaAs HBT device. Co-doping this layer is used to balance
the strain induced via the carbon doping. Co-doping also serves to enhance device
performance and alloy hardening. Defects are reduced, improvement are seen in
carrier lifetime and ohmic contact formation is more efficient. Useful in particular
in the growth of HBT and related device structures. This process can also be
used for laser and related optoelectronic device fabrication.
U.S. Patent No. 5,231,298
was issued to Spire in July of 1993 and describes a device having a carbon-doped
p-type base layer which is co-doped to relieve strain between the layers. This
device exhibits improved performance and lower defect formation, better mobility
and longer carrier lifetime. This device is a basis for high performance semiconductor
applications which use gallium arsenide, such as an HBT or similar structure.
This device type can also be used for optoelectronic device applications.
So check your process carefully, and if you're using 455 and/or 298, contact
Spire (before they contact you). It's so much easier that way. You'll find Spire
very easy to work with and willing to share their long-standing knowledge of
MOCVD processing with their licensees. Ed and Roger also wanted it known that
Spire is willing to negotiate the licenses on commercially reasonable terms.
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... |
