Ahura Targets Homeland Security Market with Boost of $10 Million in Funding Led by Ute Indian Tribe FundFebruary 3, 2005...Rising young star of portable optical instrumentation and subsystems, Ahura
Corporation of Wilmington, Massachusetts USA, has closed on $10 million in an
up round of funding and they're targeting the USA's lucrative homeland security
market with the stepped up funding. Portable instruments for emergency first
responders are the primary market for Ahura's innovative products. This brings
Ahura's total investment to more than $22 million. The company was founded in
May of 2002 by a team of innovators who had previously co-founded CoreTek which
was acquired by Nortel. The new investment partners includes all of the A-round
investors; ARCH Venture Partners, Castile Ventures and ComVentures. Leading
this series B round is the Southern Ute Indian Tribe (SUIT) Growth Fund of Durango,
Colorado.
Ahura, which rose
from the CoreTek ashes and emerged from stealth mode last October (Ref:
our Oct.
25 editorial) is developing a patented “Optical Engine”
technology and is already generating multi-million dollar revenue from OEM and
government sales. According to General Ronald R. Fogleman, who formerly served
as US Air Force Chief of Staff and is an advisor to the SUIT Growth Fund, “The
security and safety market is expanding rapidly. Ahura is pushing the technological
envelop on product performance while moving quickly to transition their designs
into production. This team is on track to introduce a series of products that
address the needs of military and civilian first responders.” Dr. Daryoosh
Vakhshoori, Ahura's CEO added, "We welcome the SUIT Growth Fund as a
new investor and are excited to have the strong support of our existing investors.
This funding will accelerate the mass production of next-generation equipment
and expand our sales channels to governments and industry. It represents a vote
of confidence in Ahura’s technology and management team and puts Ahura
on the fast-track to deliver instruments into the hands of the first responder
who put their lives on the line for society every day.“ Company
news release
Fairchild's Power Amp Slected by Korean Mobile Phone ManufacturerFebruary 3, 2005...Fairchild Semiconductor of South Portland, Maine USA has been selected as the
supplier of a high-performance linear RF power amplifier for use in the cellular
handsets made by Pantech & Curitel, which is Korea's third largest mobile
phone manufacturer. Fairchild Korea's president, Mr. Deok Jung Kim, was recently
presented with a special Award of Appreciation by Pantech & Curitel for
the outstanding performance of the power amp, the RMPA1959 and for the excellent
technical service rendered the company by Fairchild. Fairchild's RMPA1959 linear
RF power amplifier features 39% CDMA efficiency at +28 dBm average output power
and a compact 4 x 4 mm LCC package. The device's low power consumption and excellent
linearity, the result of Fairchild's proprietary InGaP Heterojunction Bipolar
Transistor (HBT) technology, reduce current consumption during peak phone usage,
among other key performance-derived benefits
Mr. Tae Hyo Lee, senior member of Pantech & Curitel's R&D technical
staff testified, "Fairchild's RMPA1959 power amplifier module is a high-performance,
feature-rich solution for adapting our mobile designs to worldwide market requirements.
The device's power, linearity and compact package, backed by solid technical
service and support, were major contributing factors in helping us to produce
leading-edge handset designs with high confidence in their reliability and suitability
for high-volume production." Mr. Deok Jung Kim, president of Fairchild
Korea added, "Fairchild appreciates being recognized by Pantech &
Curitel as one of their leading supplier partners. We look forward to continuing
to build on this important relationship by supporting Pantech & Curitel
with the product, performance and service they rely on to deploy their state-of-the-art
designs." Company
news release
IXYS Drives Low Volt White LEDsFebruary 3, 2005...IXYS of Santa Clara, California USA's Micronix Division has launched a white
LED driver that targets a wide variety of handheld battery powered display and
instrumentation panel backlighting applications due to its low voltage operation
and high drive current capability. Bob DeCaro, GM of Micronix explained, "Our
MX841 has been specifically designed to meet low voltage single cell applications
powering up to 3 series white LED's at 1.1VDC. For instrumentation panel applications,
its high drive current capability can power in excess of 20 series/parallel
white LED's at 5.0VDC." Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... Vitesse/Eblana Team Moves to 4" InP Low Threshold Single Mode Laser DiodesFebruary 1, 2005...Compound semi industry pioneer, Vitesse Semiconductor of Camarillo, California
USA, is teaming with Eblana Photonics of Dublin, Ireland to manufacture a new
line of InP low-threshold single-mode laser diodes for the optical transceiver
market, which will be produced on Vitesse’s 4” InP IC fab line. The
new effort is a follow-on to an earlier teaming between the two companies that
resulted in the production of 2.5 Gbps, single wavelength, laser diodes using
Vitesse's established 2" InP VIP-2 IC process combined with Eblana's regrowth-free
laser technology platform. Expectations for the project are that the work to be done by Vitesse/Eblana progress will enable the required levels of photonics
integration to drive the rollout of FTTP and Gigabit Ethernet in Access, and
enterprise communications applications. These future applications may in the short term be viewed
as significantly disruptive, but in the longterm they might help spawn the creation of new components and other new
applications based on intergrated photonics and electronics.
Longtime spokesperson for Vitesse, Ray Milano who serves as Vitesse's VP of
Optical Technologies said, “Eblana has solved a key problem in laser
technology by developing a device with DFB-like performance and manufactured
using standard IC process tools. Furthermore, since Eblana’s technology
platform only utilizes standard electronics design rules and mature processes,
it achieves performance and product consistency typical of IC products which
to date have not been features of Photonics products. This technology will greatly
impact the manufacturing and cost of bringing optical transceiver products to
the market.” James O’Gorman, CEO of Eblana Photonics added, “We
have chosen to partner with Vitesse due to their excellent track record in the
manufacture of cost-effective, high-quality InP IC products. Moreover, Vitesse
and Eblana Photonics share a goal of simplifying, for transceiver manufacturers,
the technical and economic challenges associated with bringing high-speed optical
products to market.” Details are included in the company
news release.
BOC Edwards' Korean Operation Receives Government AwardFebruary 1, 2005...Songwon Edwards Ltd. (SEL) of Seoul, Korea, an operating entity of BOC Edwards,
has received the Korean government’s “Export Tower” award
as recognition for the shipping of more than $10 million (USD) worth of exports
in 2004. This prestigious award, sponsored by Korea’s Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Energy (MCIE), honors companies that have achieved high levels
of export in support of the nation’s $400 billion annual export goal. SEL
has been exporting vacuum pump components since 1998 with volume steadily increasing
to over (US$)12 million in 2004. SEL’s major product export is a large
dry vacuum pump used in flat panel display and semiconductor manufacturing industries.
“Through cooperation with the BOC Edwards UK-based global sourcing group,
SEL also provides locally-sourced components to the company’s UK manufacturing
sites and other BOC Edwards operations,” said J.C. Kim, chairman and
CEO, Songwon Edwards. Details are included in the company
news release. Agilent's E-pHEMT Process Produces Two New Family MembersFebruary 1, 2005...Agilent Technologies of Palo Alto, California USA proudly announces the arrival
of two new family members of their high-linearity E-pHEMT (enhancement-mode
pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor) FETs. These tiny babies have
been named the ATF-52189 and ATF-53189 field effect transistors and came into
the world wrapped in industry-standard 4.5 mm x 4.1 mm x 1.5 mm SOT-89 surface-mount
packages. By using this ordinary package, these and their previously announced
siblings, the ATF-50189 single-voltage E-pHEMT FETs, simplify upgrading 50 MHz
to 6 GHz base stations to higher-channel capacity. The new members of the family
were designed specifically to play well with transmitter power amplifiers and
receiver low-noise amplifiers in cellular and PCS base stations, low-earth-orbit
satellite systems, terrestrial multichannel multipoint distribution systems
(MMDSs) and other communications applications operating from 450 MHz to 6 GHz.
Adopted parents will find these new babies powerful but not noisy, and meant
to live up to 300 years. Cloned ATF-52189s are priced at $2.56 each and the
ATF-53189s at $2.11 each in moderate volumes. And even though young, they're
totally weaned and already available now through Agilent's direct sales channel
and its worldwide distribution partners. Less frivolous details for serious
buyers are in the company
news release. Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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