|
Editorial: Impressions From an Outsider Looking Into a Bright New Industry
... In this editorial, we proudly introduce Scott McMahan, our incoming editor. While I'll normally occupy this familiar McDonald Report slot, it's wonderful to turn it over to my colleagues on occassion. I heartily encourage you to carefully read the impressions Scott shares in this space. This is a 31...
Jump down to the full story
| |
Features:
|
|
February 28, 2005...Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII) of Austin, Texas USA (with offices in Stockholm, Sweden, and Tokyo, Japan), will take the opportunity of the opening of SPIE's Microlithography conference in San Jose, California USA, Monday to debut their newest imprint lithography system called, the Imperio 250. This new system uses their proprietary Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) technology. According to the according to the company
news release, the Imperio 250 boasts sub-50nm half-pitch resolution, sub -10 nm alignment, and integrated magnification control. This is their first model to include fully automated wafer handling for wafers up to 300mm. Their S-FIL technology is what sets their system apart. Most manufacturers fabricate using optical lithography. According to MII, optical lithography is limited in resolution because the deep UV light that is needed has long wavelengths. MII’s S-FIL technology uses room temperature micro-molding rather than deep UV light to transfer patterns. The S-FIL technology claims nearly 5X the resolution, and reportedly can create structures close to one-fifth the size of optical lithography. Other claimed benefits of the technology faster fabrication (especially faster than molecular beam epitaxy), decreased complexity, and lower cost.
As it was explained to this reporter by Michael Falcon, their business development manager, on my visit to MII's headquarters in Austin, the technology is somewhat analogous to the way some have historically placed wax on letters to seal them, and then while still a moldable liquid, one would place an object or seal to imprint into the wax. Then the wax would dry and harden. Unlike a wax imprint, the S-FIL technology can fabricate structures with much greater precision, on a much smaller scale, and without requiring heat. According to a brochure, in the S-FIL process, first, a low viscosity and patented imprint fluid is dispensed. Then the template is lowered and the patterns within the template fill with fluid. After that, UV light polymerizes and solidifies the fluid. Finally, the template is essentially separated from the substrate, leaving a replica of the template pattern. “We could pattern these structures at throughputs that they need,” Mr. Falcon said. “This technology is a good fit to make compound semiconductor transistors. One of the market segments we see ourselves pursuing are the HB-LED and solid state lighting structures.”
Optillion Looks for BuyerFebruary 28, 2005...After filing for bankruptcy on February 11th, Optillion, a Swedish optical transceiver maker that has fallen victim to an overcrowded market, is now looking for a buyer according to a recent story in the UK's Compound Semiconductor magazine. Optillion developed 10-Gbit/s modules for 80 km distances. Its transceivers conformed to the Xenpak multisource agreement (MSA) for pluggable optics. The company also joined the group supporting the smaller X2 MSA specification. The 80 km Xenpak was a component that few companies used, and according to a recent LightReading story the smaller sized pluggable optics created a challenge for designers. While once employing over a hundred, their count dwindled in the tech crash and the current surplus market to around 70. As it stated in the Compound Semiconductor Magazine article, Couldert Brothers LLP is now representing Optillion, and is looking for a buyer. During the tech boom of 2000, Optillion raised about $53 million in series B funding. Some of the former investors have included: Crescendo Ventures, ITACT, Cisco Systems and Investor Growth Capital. As Mans Dahlqvist stated in the article, “We have a couple of companies who are interested, but no bid has been received yet,” Dahlqvist added that some companies expressed an interest in employing the laid-off Optillion workers.
Stanley's High Power LED Production Gearing Up for Auto Headlamp Market
LIGHTimes StaffFebruary 25, 2005...Stanley Electric Company Ltd.
of Japan has long been a respected packager of LEDs and a major player in integrating
LEDs into lighting products for the automotive field. Stanley
has steadily migrated up the value chain from packaging conventional and HB-LEDs
by pioneering AlGaAs center high mounted stop lamps (CHMSLs) for the Nissan
280 Z, and in 2004 officially
announcing their RGB and white LED lines. Considering that track record and their continued strength in automotive
lighting products, it shouldn't come as any surprise that Stanley appears to
be positioning itself to jump in the driver's seat as a major player in high
power white LED-based automobile headlamps. As reported in a Nikkei Net
article, by 2007, Stanley plans to be producing enough white LED headlights to
outfit 5,000 vehicles a month. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... 10 Gig Sector Boosted with New Members Joining LX4 Trade GroupFebruary 24, 2005...Five new members have joined the LX4 Trade Group that was formed last October by Emcore Corporation of Somerset, New Jersey USA as a means of strengthening broad multi-vendor support for the 10 Gigabit Ethernet sector. The new member include: BeamExpress Inc. of Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Mitsubishi Electric Inc. of Tokyo, Japan; Mysticom Semiconductor of Netanya, Israel; O-Net Communications Ltd. of Shenzhen, China; and 4Wave Inc of Sterling, Virginia USA. Each of the new members participate in the LG4-TG by supplying 10GBASE-LX4 modules or key subcomponents. The LX4-TG's mission is to advance interoperability and the LX4 standard which has the ability to transmit 10 Gigabit Ethernet data over installed multimode and single-mode fiber infrastructure. Each of the members’ 10GBase-LX4 modules is compliant to the transmission format specified within the IEEE 802.3ae standard for 10GbE that was ratified in June 2004. The modules offer 10GbE connectivity over 10km of single-mode optical fiber, or 10GbE connectivity over 300m of installed multimode optical fiber. For more information about each of the companies and quotes from company leaders, see the news release. Sirenza Achieves ISO Environmental Certification
CompoundSemi News StaffFebruary 24, 2005...Only those companies who have gone through the ISO certification process themselves know how meaningful it is to complete the rigorous tasks required to obtain this distinction, and Sirenza Microdevices' Bloomfield, Colorado USA headquarters plant has done it. The company has announced the receipt of ISO 14001:2004 certification. Sirenza is a designer and supplier of high-performance radio frequency (RF) components. Their environmental management system (EMS) has passed the Quality Management Institute’s (QMI) third-party audit and has therefore achieved ISO certification. Chuck Bland, chief operating officer, said, “This certification confirms Sirenza's commitment to minimize our impact on the environment from the facilities, products and services that we provide.” Congratulations to everyone in Broomfield for obtaining this hard won distinction. The environment is proud of you, and we are too. Bookham Debuts MSA Compliant SFP Module at OFCFebruary 24, 2005...Bookham, Inc. of San Jose, California USA will be exhibiting their new MSA standard-compliant optical module at the upcoming OFC/NFOEC show in Anaheim, California. Designed to conform to the standard of the emerging DWDM SFP MSA document, Bookham says the new module, still in the sampling stages, will be among the first production parts to fully conform to the standard. Bookham points out that the module has the advantages of SFP pluggable technology to 100 GHz spaced Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) applications. The module has 120 km reach and operates at bit rates of up to 2.7Gb/s. Bookham says that the module makes wavelength management simple while offering new configurations, a fiber exhaust solution, and adds DWDM support to existing SFP cards. In addition, the module is Compliant with MSA IGP28111, has low power consumption, is cost-effective, and field pluggable. The SFP device uses a compact transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA), which is a packaged version of the Bookham buried-heterostructure DM laser. With DWDM systems, operators can plug in DWDM SFP transceivers (instead of installing extra line cards), to add bandwidth as needed without having to go to the customer premises. LuminentOIC, and Finisar have also introduced DWDM SFP transceivers.
"Industry samples of DWDM SFP modules have been available for close to one year now but none of these samples have been able to fully meet the required performance," Robert Baker, VP of Product Marketing at Bookham, said. "The availability of the Bookham DWDM SFP will change that and we are confident we will be one of the first with a fully performing, qualified production part.” Mr. Baker added that Bookham will continue producing their high-performance 50 GHz spacing pluggable DWDM module -- the MQ25. The IGP28111, the first in a new range of SFP and XFP DWDM pluggable modules, is now shipping as final alpha samples. According to the recent company news release, “Beta samples are scheduled for April and full production release with all C-band wavelengths will be available in the third quarter of this year.”
Other news releases about DWDM SFP transceivers:
Finisar news release
LuminentOIC news release Swedish SiC Material Startup Gearing Up
CompoundSemi News StaffFebruary 23, 2005...A company new to our pages is SiC materials startup, Norstel
AB of Linköping, Sweden. A spinout of the famed Linköping University,
Norstel recently scored a significant venture funding boost through Eqvitec
Partners, Northzone Ventures, and Creandum, which will go to increasing the
capability of their patented SiC production process, called HTCVD. According
to FVCA, a Swedish news source, the total funding of Norstel now stands
at over 20 million euros with the Swedish government covering over 6 million
euros during the next three years through the Swedish Energy Agency and VINNOVA.
Fortified by a lucrative "bread and butter" contract to provide starting
SiC material to be used in the making of moissanite jewels, Norstel is expanding
capacity to an industry scale in Norrköping, Sweden where their new manufacturing
plant is currently under construction. Full production is slated to start in
2006.
Norstel's ties with Linköping University represent 10 years of work developing
the core HTCVD manufacturing process where a team included ABB and the Finnish
silicon wafer manufacturing company Okmetic, under a Swedish national SiC program,
with financing from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research and various
European projects. (Ref: Feb.
15 news release). Longtime SiC R&D catalyst, Professor Erik Janzén,
who has been in charge of the project at Linköping University, said that
their new HTCVD method could lead to a paradigm shift in the areas of electronics
and energy. “High-quality silicon carbide will now become firmly established
as a raw material for electronics, and a whole range of applications and processes
in our society, and has the potential of becoming much more energy efficient,”
said Professor Janzén. The moissanite-related contract details were also
announced
Feb. 15th. The contract is with Charles & Colvard (C&C), the exclusive
maker of moissanite
jewels. C&C, located nearby Cree Inc. in North Carolina USA, was originally
a quasi-spinoff of Cree and this contract positions Norstel as a second source
supplier to C&C, supplementing Cree's ongoing first source supply. The first
phase of the C&C contract involves their purchase of $4.1 million worth
of Norstel product over three years.
Osram Opto Semiconductor Develops LED with Height of 0.775mmFebruary 22, 2005...Osram Opto Semiconductors has developed what they claim to be the smallest LED with a reflector. Measuring a mere 2 mm in diameter and .775 mm in height, the LED called PointLED, can be sunk completely into a circuit board and is suitable for zero height mounting, and surface mounting technology(SMT). Osram says that its PointLED, which has a brightness of 800 mcd and a beam angle of 120 degrees, can be used in many different applications including automotive and handset devices. Osram adds that the PointLED can be used in flash systems for camera-phones.
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 |
|
The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Impressions From an Outsider Looking Into a Bright New IndustryFebruary 21, 2005...In this editorial, we proudly introduce Scott McMahan, our incoming editor. While I'll normally occupy this familiar McDonald Report slot, it's wonderful to turn it over to my colleagues on occassion. I heartily encourage you to carefully read the impressions Scott shares in this space. This is a 31 year old who earned a masters degree in Science and Technology Journalism from Texas A&M University. He represents the wave of the furture, and his appointment to this new role at CompoundSemi News and LIGHTimes matches the fields he'll be covering... the wave of the future. --Jo Ann McDonald, Founding Editor
I was hired for this job only a few weeks ago. Needless to say, I am very new to the solid state lighting industry. I was able to get a crash course in LEDs and solid state lighting before I went to the Strategies In Light conference in Burlingame, California. I admit I had some preconceived ideas of what to expect. I kind of expected to see a bunch of guys with glasses and pocket-protectors who would approach everyone by saying, “Come and see my new LED array.” What I found instead was a wide variety of people. Some were beautiful, some were average, and a few looked like they were from a Dilbert nightmare where they were unchained from their dungeon cubicle and computer screen for only those few days each year. They came from around the world converging in Burlingame, California USA (just outside of San Francisco) to learn more about this industry and its future. And from what I heard, they were not disappointed.
From the beginning when Dr. Robert Steele of Strategies Unlimited gave his market overview and forecast, I started learning just how big and far reaching the solid state lighting industry is. The list of applications was impressive including a variety of signs and displays; automotive and vehicle lighting; signaling for traffic, pedestrian crossing, railroad, and aviation; mobile appliances such as LCD screens, PDAs, and Digital cameras; all kinds of display, decorative, specialty, architectural, and accent lighting; and indicator lamps in consumer and industrial electronics. It was enough to make my head spin.
Dr. Steele outlined the industry’s impressive growth for the past year and what the future may hold. The growth was so impressive I was reminded of the dot.com bubble, and the violent market correction when it burst. However, nothing seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of the presenters. Even the all to common claims of having the biggest, best, brightest, most powerful, most efficient, LED light source, seemed fairly impressive to me. They seemed impressive until I learned about Cree’s Law, where the number of lumens per wafer produced doubles about every two years.
Presenters threw around numbers and measurements with units like lux, lumen, and candela with little or no explanation of the condition, circumstances, and methods used to get those measurements. I have enough scientific background to know that scientific testing requires reproducible results, and the results preferably have full disclosure of methods. After talking with many people from the industry I found that even when companies buy components from other companies, before they use those components in their products, they perform their own proprietary tests on the components because they do not trust other companies’s datasheets.
This call for standardization of measurement was a common theme of many presenters. A number of organizations such as NEMA and CIE are working on solid state lighting standards. Only a few seemed to know about, or follow any of these standards. Unfortunately, these organizations don’t yet have the power to standardize. The only part of the industry where the participants have vigorous standards and rules to follow is when lighting is created for the automobile industry. Unlike other parts of the industry where a designer says that warm white color looks good there, designs have more serious concerns, mainly safety.
Another theme that came up was the call for more power efficiency. In some applications the measurement for this might be lumens per watt. I like the comment that Ruediger Mueller, President and CEO of Osram Opto Semiconductors, gave on the last day of the conference when he reminded everyone that there are physical limitations to efficiency measured in lumens per watt. “You cannot get significantly more than 100% efficiency.”
Fortunately for me, the conference was not highly technical, except for a couple of presentations about the differences among white LEDs. Apparently there are even more variations of white LEDs than there are variations of white paint at the Home Depot. Another thing that I noticed was that many talked about vertical integration. This seems like the way to go so you can control all the steps along the way, and you will not have to retest components from suppliers.
I tend to agree with Mr. Mueller again when he said, “I think the next big growth push will come again from substitution.” Market gains from substitution go faster because people have already established a need, and you just have to make the best product to fill that need and educate the public about it. The municipal market is one area where extreme growth might be possible with substitution. Another part of the market that might drive growth is the automobile industry. Overall, (to use a bad pun) the outlook for the Solid State Lighting industry looks extremely bright. (This is only my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Compoundsemi.com or Lightimes.com.)-- Scott McMahan
For an editorial about solid state lighting standards click this editorial link.
For more about LED standards visit the NEMA website at:
www.nema.org
or the CIE website at:
CIE Link 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... |
