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February 8, 2005...The foremost market researcher in he field of advanced LEDs, Dr. Robert Steele
of Strategies Unlimited, kicked off today's opening day of Strategies In
Light (ref
our conference preview) with a forecast that the overall HB-LED market will
likely double in value by 2009 reaching an estimated worth of $7 billion.
According to Bob's talk, which annually announces SU's revised market numbers,
the HB-LED market grew a predicted 37% and resulted in $3.7 billion of revenue
to the worldwide manufacturers this last year. Note that Strategies' Bob Steele forecast...way back in 2001... that the
market would hit $3.4 Billion by 2005. (Ref:
our April 2001 article) Now that's our idea of a reliable market research
forecast!
Bob specifically reported that the market for backlights in
keypads was actually less than last year, capturing only 38% of the market in
'04; whereas that pivotal sector held 45% of the market in '03. Cellphones were the big winner
last year, capturing 58% of the market, yielding $2.15 billion, and automotive
and signage captured 13% of the market in '04. Bob Steele also told the audience
that while the $7 billion is an impressive number, it's actually a bit of a
slowdown compared to the dramatic years experienced from 1999 through last year.
Stay tuned for our series of reports about SIL from our News Editor, Scott McMahan, who is attending the meet in California.
Oriol White LED IP Auction Brings $1.5 MillionFebruary 8, 2005...The February 3rd telephone auction of Oriol's white LED IP (ref:
our Jan 5th headline news coverage) concluded quickly and yielded $1.5 million.
Uncle Burt (Gordan Lancaster) called Friday to thank us for publicizing the
auction of Oriol's white LED intellectual property. It seems our efforts definitely
helped garner the right bidders. The winning bidder requested their name remain
unpublished. According to Burt, the proceeds from the auction will go to pay
all of Oriol's vendors, in full. The Silicon Valley-based USA company necessarily
went bankrupt after a major Korean investor's intentions to buy a major share
of the company proved fraudulent. When the company went into bankruptcy, Uncle
Burt's friends rallied behind him and his vendors kicked into patience
mode. Burt is an especially popular figure in the SSL industry. The bills will
soon be marked "Paid in Full." Key Players Emcore & TriQuint On TrackFebruary 8, 2005...The quarterly earnings reports are coming in for the USA's publicly held compound
semi industry key players that trade on the Nasdaq exchange, and overall, things
appear to be picking up a bit. The performance of two long standing key players,
Emcore Corporation of Somerset, New Jersey and TriQuint Semiconductor of Hillsboro,
Oregon appear indicative of how the industry is fairing, overall. Emcore, with
a headcount now at 650 and spread over California, New Mexico and in the headquarters
plant in Somerset, New Jersey where they continue their leading edge epitaxy
foundry services, continues to improve its operating performance. Revenues this
quarter reached their high end of expectations. Details are in the company's
earnings release.
According to Reuben Richards, Emcore's President and CEO, "Gross margins
doubled since last quarter and we expect further increases in both revenues
and margins as 2005 progresses. Going forward, EMCORE will maintain our focus
on improving gross margins by increasing yields, reducing costs, and expanding
upon our current program of outsourcing high volume products to overseas contract
manufacturers. In addition, EMCORE intends to spinoff or eliminate certain non-core
development projects which will also improve operational performance. Adjusted
EBITDA of $(4.6) million improved $2 million from the September quarter and
we expect to see significant improvement in adjusted EBITDA in the March quarter,
with the target being adjusted EBITDA breakeven. For the quarter ending March
31, 2005, we expect revenues of $29-$30 million." Emcore also scored
a first for their company in appointing its first female corporate VP. Monica
Duran is the new VP of Human Resources. Monica is based in the California offices
in the Ortel division. In further employee-related news out of the Ortel division,
Corporate VP Hong Hou is taking over the helm of that division and has moved
from Albuquerque to California.
TriQuint continues to be a critically important USA company to the compound
semi industry and was one of the first foundries in the field. As reported in
their company
earnings release, revenues of $74.7 million were slightly above guidance.
Commenting on the results for the quarter and year ended, Ralph Quinsey, President
and CEO, stated, "TriQuint Semiconductor successfully penetrated the
GSM/GPRS market in 2004 and took aggressive cost restructuring actions in the
fourth quarter to reduce the losses in our optoelectronics product line. With
close to three times revenue growth in the GSM/GPRS market, we are on track
to becoming a significant supplier in this billion dollar market. We are actively
sampling our 'world's smallest' products -- including a 5 mm x 5 mm GSM/GPRS
power amplifier module and a 6 mm x 6 mm GSM/GPRS transmit module -- a device
that includes both the power amplifier and switch functions for a tri- or quadband
handset. We expect to be shipping production in the first quarter of 2005. We
have significantly increased our participation in the GSM/GPRS RF filter market
with the success of our quad band filter bank module. While we expect revenues
in the first quarter of 2005 to be seasonally weaker than the fourth quarter,
we expect subsequent quarters of 2005 to be sequential growth quarters."
Cree Reveals Latest White LED Performance Results at Strategies in LightFebruary 8, 2005...Cree, Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA one of the undisputed "Big 5"
in advanced LED manufacturing, is taking the opportunity of this week's Strategies
In Light conference in Burlingame, California USA to announce
their most recent breakthrough in white LED performance. The results were 100
lumens per watt and 50 percent wall-plug efficiency from standard 5 mm LEDs,
and maximum luminous flux of 60 lumens from its 7090 series white XLamp
power LEDs operating at 350 mA. According to Chris James, marketing manager
at Cree Lighting who described the advance, "We are demonstrating significant
levels of brightness and efficiencies from both standard and power LEDs. White
LEDs are on a critical path toward significantly reducing energy costs for lighting
throughout the world. Although there is significant development work to be done,
I believe the LED industry is advancing toward replacing the light bulb at a
more rapid pace than just a few years ago." Mr. James added that Cree will release more specifics about these breakthroughs soon. Lamina Develops 5 inch square 1,400 watt 28,000 Lumen White LED ArrayFebruary 8, 2005...Lamina Ceramics of Westhampton, New Jersey USA has announced the development
of what they're terming an ultrahigh lumen LED white light engine that's 14
times brighter than previously demonstrated white light LED array. The 28,000
lumen solid-state device is 5 inches square and is powered by 1,400 watts. This
announcement, which is a highlight of today's Strategies In Light conference in Burlingame, California comes just three months from Lamina's RGB (red-green-blue) light
engine and is twice as bright. Lamina is calling this newest white light engine
"Aterion White." It's comprised of 1,120 LEDs with a 5,500°K
color-corrected temperature (CCT) and a color rendition index (CRI) of 80. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... 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... 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
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