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Editorial: The Long Awaited DARPA GaN Awards
... In 2003, then again in 2004, rumors were that DARPA was going to have a GaN program that rivaled the old $5xx (?) million "MIMIC Program" that put GaAs monolithic microwave IC (MMIC) technology on the USA's military map. GaAs epi-based HEMTs and HBTs began their rise to what...
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Veeco Projects Growth and Announces Status of Corrective Actions
Scott McMahanMarch 17, 2005...In a quarterly conference call Edward H. Braun, chairman and CEO of Veeco said that they should have about a two percent increase in revenue per quarter over the next three quarters despite the likely decline in the LED and wireless equipment sales resulting from market saturation in 2005. Mr. Braun reported, “Revenues increased in all our core markets, with particular strength in LED, wireless, data storage and semiconductor.” Mr Braun added, “Our 2005 focus is to improve our profitability across our Process Equipment and Metrology product lines and to position Veeco for what we currently believe are strong growth opportunities in 2006 and beyond.”
Veeco announced their completion of the internal investigation of improper accounting at their TurboDisc business unit. Jeferson Wells, a firm retained by Veeco’s audit committee, reported the findings. According to Veeco, “Conclusions reached during the investigation included that the improper entries were made by a single individual at TurboDisc whose employment had been terminated prior to the commencement of the investigation.” The company said that the investigation, that began after an internal audit found improper accounting, focused on, “the value of inventory, accounts payable and certain liabilities, as well as certain revenue transactions of TurboDisc.” Mr Braun added, “Actions have been taken to resolve these accounting issues, including the completion of an independent review, appropriate staffing changes, and transitioning TurboDisc to Veeco's SAP accounting system."
He said, that they expanded the investigation into, “other parts of the company in certain areas just as a precaution and found nothing to warrant any further examination or expansion of the search.” Mr. Braun explained, “Its only limited to one individual, and one site, and he is very much contained…No motive was found; there was no provable embezzlement. No assets left the building. Nobody seems to have individually prospered because of this. No one was coerced by management or the company to follow this incorrect accounting. We have found the problem, we have fixed the problem.”
In related news, Veeco appointed Richard Wissenbach as Senior Vice President, General Manager for its Compound Semiconductor/Epitaxial Process Equipment Group, which includes the TurboDisc MOCVD operation in Somerset, New Jersey USA and its MBE operations in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Company News Release
March 17, 2005...The AXT Board of Directors has appointed Philip C. S. Yin PhD. as their chief executive officer effective March 28th. The company, of Freemont, California USA, a producer of compound semiconductor substrates for the fiber optics and communications industries, says that it will grow in 2005. Don Tatzin will step down as interim CEO to serve on the the Board of Directors. The company chairman, Jesse Chen said, “We believe that AXT is poised for growth during 2005 and Phil's track record of increasing sales and customer satisfaction in his previous positions will accelerate our improvement." Dr. Yin has a distinguished career as an executive in the compound semiconductor and semiconductor industries and most recently served as general manager for North America of AIXTRON Inc., a leading manufacturer of MOCVD equipment used in the compound semiconductor industry. In other company news, as part of the company's ongoing effort to reduce its cost structure and bring capacity in line with current market demand, AXT on March 11th reduced their manufacturing workforce at their Beijing, China facility by 100 workers or about 15%. More on Northrop Grumman's Role in the DARPA Wide Bandgap Initiative
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 16, 2005...As follow-on to our initial coverage,
Northrop Grumman's award from DARPA for work on the new Wide
Bandgap Semiconductor Initiative is in Phase II. This was clarified for us by
Dwight Streit, VP of Foundation Technologies, at the company's Space Technology
sector in Redondo Beach, California USA. Setting the record straight, Dwight pointed
out that the company is indeed still in the same merchant foundry business
as TRW was during DARPA's original GaAs MIMIC Program. (Ref:
March 14 editorial, The Long Awaited DARPA GaN Awards). Dwight served
as TRW's principal in that earlier program. Currently, NG continues to providing
merchant GaAs foundry services as well as InP services through its Velocium
arm (which still exists as constructed by TRW, which was scaled down when
NG purchased TRW). According to Dwight, NG will additionally offer GaN foundry
services when the new GaN on SiC lines reach X-band production capability. Dwight
indeed agreed that this was the long-awaited GaN awards, and reminded us that
the program actually began with Phase 1 and that this current award round to
three teams, TriQuint, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon (and Raytheon may not actually
be the prime in that program) is actually Phase II.
The old MIMIC Program actually
started with a Phase 0 that included TriQuint and virtually everyone else in
the compound semi field at the time, and the field was whittled down to Raytheon+TI and TRW+Westinghouse.
Dwight pointed out that the historic tie-ins are especially interesting. The
Redondo Beach Space Technology campus, (which is huge) is where the original
Space Technology Laboratories was located; It was launched the day after
Sputnik was launched in 1957. Starting at Ramo and Wooldridge, Thompson became
involved when the first ICBM contracts were let and the company became Thompson,
Ramo and Wooldridge (TRW). Another tie in is that TRW was teamed with Westinghouse
Baltimore for MIMIC, and Westinghouse Baltimore was acquired by Northrop Grumman,
so the internal NG team for the WGB program is really a reuniting of the old
MIMIC TRW+Westinghouse team, with some of the same people involved. NG is also
purposely not yet revealing the names of all their suppliers and partners. Deep UV LEDs Reach Major Milestone in Water Purification
Jo Ann McDonaldMarch 15, 2005...A team of incredible USA scientists and engineers have succeeded in demonstrating an LED-based flow-through UV water purification module.
The technology has made major strides, but it still has not reached the realms of commercial feasibility for an ultraviolet LED-based
solution for water purification and a replacement of mercury vapor lamp purification technology. The team consists of especially
talented people from Sensor Electronic
Technology, Inc. (SET) in Columbia, South Carolina, the Photonics
and Microelectronics Lab at the University of South Carolina (USC) in Colombia,
South Carolina, and Hydro-Photon Inc. (HPI) of Blue Hill, Maine. SET is headed
by Remis Gaska and Michael Shur,
USC is headed by Asif
Khan, and HPI is headed by Miles Maiden. HPI is the creator and seller of
a popular product called the "Steripen"
that purifies water using mercury vapor lamp technology that currently sells
for $149 and is used primarily by outdoor adventurers and travelers to places
where the drinking water is questionable. HPI's next generation product will
use an array of UV-LEDs, be significantly smaller and more compact, last longer,
and sell for under $50.
The commercial application has been helping drive DARPA's SUVOS
program, which is under the direction of Col. John Carrano, seen pictured
third down on the right at our Blue
2003 conference where he presented the first results of the SUVOS. SET is the
leading commercial supplier of deep UV LEDs with wavelength ranging from 255
to 340 nm and is the only commercial supplier of 265 nm to 320 nm LEDs
which are the wavelengths required for efficient water purification. Working under
a contract with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the support of the SUVOS
program, HPI has developed a bench-level prototype flow-through treatment
chamber that incorporates 10 of the SET/USC 280 nanometer devices. The aluminum
treatment chamber (a half cylinder with a volume of approximately 4 cubic centimeters)
was fabricated to maximize UV reflectance and heat sink capacity. Commentary on the
progress and potential of UV LEDs is included in our March
15 McDonald Report LIGHTimes editorial.
Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... MII Wins EE Times' ACE Award
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 16, 2005...Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII) of Austin, Texas USA, a global manufacturer of nanolithography equipment, won EE Times’ Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) award for “Most Promising New Technology.” The company beat out IBM, Intel, and two others with their technology called Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) for creating the most compelling electronic component that is outstanding in technical design, has the greatest potential market impact, and demonstrates the company’s leadership in the field. Selected by a panel of leading technologists, educators, and executives from five finalists in each of 14 categories from an original pool of 340 entries, the ACE awards are for companies and products that make a significant contribution and demonstrate true innovation in their field. “We are proud to have been selected for this award. It is a compliment to our hard working staff that we have taken a laboratory technology and delivered it to the market in such a short time,” Norm Shumaker, MII’s president and CEO said. So congratulations to MII, a local company whose innovation we covered while completing a recent story on their latest microlithography system. Company News Release Mimix Broadband Agrees to Buy GaAs Assets From CeleritekMarch 15, 2005...Mimix Broadband has agreed to purchase the GaAs assets from Celeritek for a reported $2.8 million, and Mimix will assume $6 million in liability.
Just six days after acquiring majority stake in Hocum Communications of Hsinchu, Taiwan, Mimix Broadband Inc., a privately held company with headquarters in Houston, Texas USA, has agreed to purchase the assets of Celeritek, Inc. of Santa Clara, California related to its GaAs business. Mimix Broadband, which produces millimeter-wave MMICs, will pay $2.8 million for the assets and assume $6 million in liabilities for Celeritek's GaAs business assets. Celeritek designs and manufactures radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), gain blocks, low noise amplifier modules, and power amplifier modules, using GaAs based device technology used in a variety of commercial and defense applications.
"Celeritek's 19 years of expertise in designing and manufacturing GaAs components will give Mimix an immediate platform to expand its product portfolio and serve new, complementary markets," said Rick Montgomery, CEO of Mimix Broadband, Inc. Mr. Montgomery added, “As a result of this transaction, Mimix will be able to offer a more diversified product portfolio to serve the top tier telecom, satellite and defense companies and will have the assets and capabilities to be a leading player in both the microwave and millimeter-wave semiconductor marketplaces." According to the company news release, the closing of the asset sale is subject to approval by Celeritek's shareholders and other closing conditions. After the sale is consummated, Celeritek will close business, and begin liquidation and dissolution.
TriQuint Scores $30+ Million Multi-Year DARPA GaN on SiC Electronic Contract
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 14, 2005...TriQuint Semiconductor of Hillsboro, Oregon USA is moving rapidly onto everyone's
radar screens as an open foundry catalyst for GaN materials and devices for
a variety of electronic applications. The company, which bases its operations
in both Oregon and Texas, has been working on GaN electronics since 199 and
is the second to announce
what appears to be shaping up as a trio of impressive GaN on SiC for Wide Bandgap
(WBG) semiconductor contracts from the USA's Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA), the other two prime contractor teams being led by giants Northrop
Grumman and Raytheon (ref:
our coverage). TriQuint's contract is specifically to develop high power
wide band HEMT GaN on SiC amplifiers. Program goals are to develop 100W power,
30% PAE @ 2-20GHz HEMTs targeted at achieving the higher power density and efficiency
required for high power phased array radar, electronic warfare, missile seeker
and communications systems. The Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland
will monitor TriQuint's contract, which has already begun in Richardson, Texas
under internal funding by the company.
Phase 1 of TriQuint's contract will last three years and is valued at $15.8
million and the second, optional phase that moves the GaN on SiC amplifiers
into insertion in DoD systems covers years four and five and is valued at $15.9
million. TriQuint's team members are an impressive litany of individuals and
companies, and includes his phase will develop gallium nitride high power, wide
band amplifiers and package technology for insertion into DoD systems. TriQuint
is the prime and they've teamed with none other than BAE Systems and Lockheed
Martin as their systems integrator partners, Emcore Corporation for the GaN
on SiC epiwafers, II-VI Incorporated as their suppliers of starting SiC, and
Nitronex (the rising stars of GaN on Silicon in North Carolina) as TriQuint's
pros at reliability. Strong reliability data is key to TriQuint's approach.
University partners are Dr. Michael Shur of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
and Dr. Jesus del Alamo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The program
tasks include material optimization, device development, MMIC development and
module demonstration. The contract emphasizes reliability, yield, uniformity
and reproducibility. The program also includes a MMIC validation process. At
the end of the five-year program, TriQuint Semiconductor will have a reliable,
reproducible and stable gallium nitride process suitable for DoD and commercial
applications... and the open market.
"TriQuint is very excited to be leading a highly qualified team in
the development of this new technology. Gallium nitride offers a five-fold improvement
in power density compared to gallium arsenide devices, and makes it ideal for
high power radar and communications applications," said Mr. Anthony
Balistreri, TriQuint's program manager for research and development. "TriQuint
looks forward to providing high volume, cost effective foundry services and
standard products based on gallium nitride," Tony added. "We
have assembled an excellent team, with strengths in the key areas called out
in the program requirements," said Dr. Paul Saunier, TriQuint's principal
investigator. "The team will combine talent and experience to minimize
risk and reduce development time, leading to a successful development effort."
For more details on this DARPA GaN on SiC WBG initiative, reference our March
14th Editorial.
Toyoda Gosei and TridonicAtco to Establish Joint Venture for Development and Production of White LEDs
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 14, 2005...Toyoda Gosei of Aichi, Japan and TridonicAtco of Zumtobel Group with headquarters
in Dornbirn, Austria, are going to establish a joint venture based in Jennersdorf,
Austria in April to advance the development of high-power white LEDs. The new
joint venture will produce high-power LED packages and components for the general lighting market. 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
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The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
The Long Awaited DARPA GaN AwardsMarch 14, 2005...In 2003, then again in 2004, rumors were that DARPA was going to have a GaN
program that rivaled the old $5xx (?) million "MIMIC Program"
that put GaAs monolithic microwave IC (MMIC) technology on the USA's military
map. GaAs epi-based HEMTs and HBTs began their rise to what is now an incredible
installed base in both military and commercial systems throughout the world.
The MIMIC program, which was run by DARPA back when "dual use" was
a DoD mandate in the USA, meaning all target applications had to be equally
relevant to civilian and military use, resulted in fueling a then-fledgling
compound semi industry. And DARPA, in the name of the American taxpayer, earned
the well deserved credit for an admirable "mission accomplished."
About the only folly of that program was its name. "MIMIC" was the
acronym for the program. "MMIC" and pronounced exactly the same as
the established acronym for the technology, "MMIC". They both meant
basically the same thing.
When industry insiders heard rumbles that a similar initiative for GaN for
electronic applications was on DARPA's radar screen, everyone became extremely
excited. While GaN was doing great in the LED sector and brightening the entire
blue spectrum, electronic applications for this particular wide bandgap (WBG)
semiconductor family was sorely in need of an R&D boost. DARPA had invested
heavily in SiC through the years, and I have a hunch that was at the heart of
the delay. Couple that with a severe depression in the communications industry
and the fact that it's difficult for even the military branches to find
budget monies while the US Congress knew good and well that the American deficit
spending was reaching an all time high. Behind the scenes, GaN was gaining on
SiC in the labs, with companies like Nitronex showing impressive reliability
data on their GaN on Silicon runs. Nitronex co-founder Kevin Linthicum reported
eye-opening X-Band MMIC results at Outlook in December. Nitronex 100-mm runs
of X-Band GaN on silicon at TriQuint's two stage X-band pHEMT foundry were extremely
impressive! And that work was done with no backing by DARPA whatsoever.
Nitronex proved that they could run 451 MMICs per wafer and they produced metrics
of: Vd: 30V, Pout: 25.7W (2.3 W/mm) PAE: 20.7% and Gain: 14.8dB.
While it wasn't likely that GaN on silicon would get a crack at the taxpayer
pie, GaN on SiC performance by epiwafer fab pros at companies like Emcore and
Cree was enough to make prime contractors like Northrop Grumman and Raytheon
want to get in on the act. A major WBG initiative was in the wings once the
giant defense contractors got in on the act. Raytheon was one of the GaAs MIMIC
primes, co-oping with Texas Instruments. Here's where the history gets interesting
for those of you not on the scene at the time. TI dropped their compound semi
work in favor of DSPs and TriQuint picked up the group. Thus TriQuint Texas
was born out of MIMIC. Northrop Grumman was the first company the DoD funded
to make SiC substrates, eventually selling off their SiC group. The other MIMIC
program prime was TRW, which eventually became part of Northrop Grumman. So
here we have the best of the old guard.... three primes who have a history of
spending DARPA's funds fairly efficiently: Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and TriQuint.
Of the three, only TriQuint is a merchant foundry. That means that whatever
they produce will be openly used by their foundry customers. NG and Raytheon
will undoubtedly again stay "closed" and stick to DoD only business.
Two very familiar names are key in these contacts, Tom Cordner, VP and GM of
of TriQuint Texas and Dwight Streit of NG. Tom was at TI and my prime contact
during the MIMIC program and Dwight was my prime contact at TRW during the MIMIC
program. If Jim DiLorenzo was still at Raytheon, it'd be like old home week.
I was the only technology reporter to track the MIMIC Program, I've been a major
cheerleader for the WBGs, so I guess I better gear up to track this follow-on
DARPA GaN on SiC Wide Bandgap Semiconductor
Initiative, which is its official name and how it should be spelled. That
underscored blue link will take you to DARPA's official postings on the program.
The first to announce their award was Northrop Grumman on March 9th (ref:
our headline news coverage). Due to the brevity of the NG news
release, at first I thought this was simply another token award for GaN
by DARPA. Then TriQuint's
release came over the wire and I called my good friend Tom Cordner for details
and confirmation that this may really be the start of something big... the something
we've all been waiting impatiently for. Here was relatively little TriQuint
playing toe-to-toe with two huge defense contractors. Impressive. According
to Tom, the key reason TriQuint went for this contract, that actually began
in February with TriQuint footing the costs directly until the DARPA monies
kicked in, is because of their open foundry offering policy. Whereas the other
DARPA GaN on SiC contracts now kicking in are led by closed manufacturers, Raytheon
and Northrop Grumman, TriQuint's foundry is truly open to everyone, which appeals
to two of TriQuint's partners in this extraordinary and exciting endeavor, Lockheed
Martin and BAE Systems, two very large USA defense contractors, who normally
compete with one another (thus proving the strength of the open foundry concept).
TriQuint is already BAE's commercial foundry of choice and they've worked closely
with Lockheed in the past as well. Both bring especially interesting and potentially
lucrative systems applications to the GaN on SiC HEMT program.
The supply side of the contract team includes II-VI Inc., which will provide
the SiC substrates. II-VI's Wide Bandgap Materials (WBG) Group has two SiC wafer
production facilities, one in Pine Brook, New Jersey and the other in Saxonburg,
Pennsylvania. The SiC substrates will then move on to Emcore Corporation's epiwafer
foundry in Somerset, New Jersey where some of the best GaNzilla's still reside. Then Nitronex will contribute their reliability knowledge. For the GaN device modeling they will employ none other than the great Michael Shur (who co-founded
Sensor Electronic Technologies Inc.(SETI) with Remis Gaska...) SETI is indisputably
ahead of any other company at this stage in their GaN device work).
"Why II-VI instead of Cree," I asked Tom? Because Cree is
on Raytheon's team. We haven't yet received the details from Raytheon, but that
contract should be in the same basic ballgame. And we have a call in to Dwight
Streit to get the details of who's playing on his team, and will report more
when we get it. They each seem to be getting about $16-17 million for the first
phase with potentially lucrative follow-on options should they produce as expected.
So that would mean about $45 million plus upfront, with double or triple that
in the longrun. Coupled with all the millions that have already been doled out to a variety of USA universities, startups and established defense contarctors, in my book, that puts the WBG
Initiative in the ballgame with the old MIMIC Program. DARPA and the supporting DoD services and agencies with whom they work are largely run by seasoned
professionals who know how to spend the taxpayer's monies wisely, so this should
be just the boost GaN electronics needs right now to get it off the ground and deployed in a variety of useful systems. Now... if we can just get
the checks to clear the bank. But hey, it's the US Treasury. What's a
few more millions in deficit spending?
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... |
