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Editorial: Paul Jay Previews "Photonics North"
... Canada has been helping lead the photonics revolution (which includes LEDs) for decades, but with recent downtimes, we haven't heard much from the land of the Mounties. Compound semi industry veteran Dr. Paul Jay is helping change that. As executive director of the Canadian Photonics Consortium, Paul is helping...
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August 15, 2005...Agilent Technologies of Palo Alto, California USA, announced it will sell its semiconductor business to Kohlberg Kravis
Roberts & Co and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion. Company president
and CEO, William Sullivan said that the semiconductor business unit of agilent was half as profitable
as it should have been this year. The chip testing business posted a loss for
the quarter. The company will cut 1,300 of its 28,000 workers in the divested
units. The moves are expect to cost $200 million. Agilent will close 11 locations,
Chief Financial Officer Adrian Dillon said at a meeting with analysts in New
York. According to the company, the sale will close by Oct. 31, and Agilent
expects the divestiture will be largely completed by the middle of FY2006.In addition to the sale of its semiconductor business, Agilent has agreed to sell
its 47% stake in Lumileds Lighting Inc., a maker of advanced LEDs of all colors (and a leading manufacturer of white LEDs) to its JV partner in Lumileds, Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands for approximately $950 million and $50 million in debt payoff. (Lumileds'
company news release) Lumileds was originally set up as a 50-50 partnership between Agilent and Lumileds. Lumileds employees hold approximately 3.5% of the original Agilent shares.
Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... GigaBeam to Use Vitesse InP TechnologyAugust 15, 2005...GigaBeam Corp. of Herdon, Virginia USA, has entered into an exclusive agreement
with Vitesse Semiconduct to use Vitesse’s proprietary indium phosphide (InP)
semiconductor technology. GigaBeam says it will use the technology in its proprietary
RF modules. "We are excited to have exclusive access to certain of Vitesse's
technology and know how. As a company, GigaBeam is committed to incorporating
into its products proprietary technologies which we believe will continue to provide
us with sustainable competitive advantages, " said Lou Slaughter, GigaBeam's
Chairman and CEO.
GigaBeam's WiFiber G Series was introduced at Supercomm in June 2005. The company
says it is currently developing its next generation WiFiber, which will include
the their 10 Gigabits-per-second products operating at 10Gig E and OC192 protocols.
Mr. Slaughter added, "The Vitesse technology and know-how being obtained
under this new agreement will be incorporated into our next generation 10 Gigabits-per-second
products. Our strategy is to continue to develop and commercialize products
designed to lead the market in overall performance and cost for last mile communications."
The FCC has assigned WiFiber the 71-76GHz and 81-86GHz part of the spectrum.
GigaBeam says that the current speed achieved by GigaBeam's WiFiber 2 and anticipated
WiFiber G Series product lines is one Gigabit-per-second. The company claims
this is equivalent to 647 T1 lines or 1,000 DSL connections. GigaBeam also plans
deployment of future products capable of 10 Gigabits-per-second which is the
10 Gigabit Ethernet protocol standard. Company
News Release Cree Awarded Airforce Contract for SiC MMIC Development
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 11, 2005...Cree Inc., of Durham, North Carolina USA, was awarded a $19.7 million cost share contract to develop and manufacture silicon carbide monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) devices for next generation military radar systems, according to the Department of Defense. The DoD reported that $4.1 million of the funds have been obligated thus far. The work is scheduled to be completed in March 2010. Solicitation began March 2005 and negotiations were completed July 2005. In early July of this year, Raytheon was awarded a $580 million contract through Boeing to provide 190 GaAs-MMIC-based radar systems for the Super Hornet fighter aircraft used by the U.S. navy.
Chemical Warfare Agent Detection Systems Development Update
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 11, 2005...Northwestern University researchers (Illinois, USA) have created a quantum cascade laser that may one day be a part of a man portable (or perhaps even handheld) system to detect chemical warfare agents (CWA’s). Portable compound semi-based CWA detectors is a field in which Ahura Corporation of Wilmington, Massachusetts USA already has a established a foothold with their Ramen laser-based handheld devices. Northwestern's development effort is part of a three-year program called Laser Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (LPAS), funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create a system that can warn against a wide variety of potential threats.
The researchers at Northwestern University have created the quantum cascade laser (QCL) that can operate continuously at high power and at room temperature with an emission wavelength of 9.5 microns and light output greater than 100 milliwatts, according to a PhysOrg.com article. The researchers contend that existing standard diode lasers such as those that read CD’s or scan barcodes do not operate at the wavelengths required to detect chemical warfare agents (CWA’s). While every chemical has a unique 'fingerprint’ because it absorbs light at a particular frequency, most CWA’s absorb light in the 8 to 12 micron range.
Over the next two years, the Center for Quantum Devices director, Manijeh Razeghi and her team at Northwestern will work to put together a detection system based on the center's far-infrared laser. The system will then be evaluated by DARPA for use by the military.
The Center for Quantum Devices at Northwestern, a leader in high-power QCL research. was reportedly the first university research lab in the world to successfully grow, fabricate, and test quantum cascade lasers in 1997. After the initial demonstration of room-temperature pulsed lasers in 1997, the primary efforts of Razeghi and her colleagues over the past several years have been to increase the laser's operating temperature, power output, and efficiency for the continuous operation necessary for sensitive chemical analysis.
The Ahura Corporation's approach focuses on a device with a similar function of detecting chemical warfare agents and other potential threats. Unlike the device the Northwestern University researchers are attempting to design, the handheld Ahura system uses a Ramen-laser for spectroscopy. The results are interpreted by a sophisticated algorithm and compared with signatures of known chemical agents including industrial chemicals, explosives, narcotics, and chemical warfare agents. The system, called the First Defender, can be used through glass or plastic. Details on First Defender can be found on the company's website, www.ahuracorp.com. Ahura recently received the Product Innovation Award for Homeland Security Devices for their First Defender product from Frost and Sullivan. Applied Materials Enters MOCVD Equipment Market
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 10, 2005...Applied Materials Inc. of Santa Clara, California USA, plans to make and sell
metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) equipment to produce high-k dielectrics
for advanced gate-stack applications, according to a recent EE Times
article. The company, which already produces CVD and atomic layer disposition machines,
is also expected to enter the ALD tool market for gate-stack applications.
In the article, Pravin Narwankar, high-k engineering manager for the Front
End Products Division at Applied Materials said that MOCVD technology is expected
to give chip makers the ability to produce high-k gate-stack films with lower
costs than ALD-based tools on the market. The article points out that device manufacturers are struggling to reduce current
leakage in their cutting edge devices while increasing performance. Narwankar
said, “The 45-nm transistor is at the cross roads,” He
added,. “Silicon dioxide has hit the wall at 65-nm. Silicon dioxide
has also hit the wall for low-power applications.”
According to the article,
companies are evaluating the use of ALD, plasma enhanced ALD, MOCVD, and related
technologies for the production of high-k for gate stacks to overcome such hurdles. Applied Materials has also gained a new ALD product, based on a mini-batch technology
through its acquisition of Torrex. The company showcased its technology at the
AVS 5th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition 2005 in San Jose
on Monday. Phasebridge Wins Contract for Optoelectronic DevelopmentAugust 9, 2005...The US Navy has selected Phasebridge to develop and demonstrate analog RF signal
transmission through fiber optic cable instead of the copper cable currently used.
While copper cable can handle some RF transmissions, it is limited in its ability
to transmit RF signals. Dr. John Gallo, vice president of business development
at Phasebridge, explained, “As frequencies of these RF signals increase,
copper cables become incapable of transmitting these signals faithfully over any
significant distance. Our advanced, hybrid fiber optic links not only overcome
this bandwidth-distance limitation, but also weigh much less than copper cables
– a significant factor in airborne applications.”
Phasebridge, Inc. of Pasadena, California USA, which specializes in photonic
integration technologies, has been awarded a contract for the development and
manufacture of integrated fiber-optic transmitters and receivers for the AN/ALR-95
system on the P-3C Maritime Patrol Aircraft. The EDO Corporation awarded the
contract to provide the AN/ALR-95 system to the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR)
Maritime Patrol Aircraft Program (PMA290). The company will develop the fiberoptic transmitter and receiver modules using their proprietary hybrid integration
technology. According to the company, the photonic modules developed under this
contract will be capable of delivering high bandwidth Electronic Support Measures
(ESM) in the presence of extremely challenging environmental conditions.Company News Release Northrup Grumman Wins DARPA Contract for SiC Power ElectronicsAugust 8, 2005...Northrup Grumman has won a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)
contract to develop silicon carbide (SiC) high-power modules to replace bulky
transformers on naval vessels. According to the $8.9 million contract, part
of Phase II of DARPA’s Wide-Band gap High Power Switching program (Ref:
article),
Northrup Grumman will lead the team of multiple companies and institutions to
develop the technology to replace transformers on navel vessels that can be
as large as a sport utility vehicle and can weigh as much as 20,000 lbs. (about
9,091 kg). Silicon-carbide technology can enable these improvements due to its
ability to switch high voltages in what the company describes as a thin, high-speed
device with excellent thermal properties.
According to the contract, Northrop Grumman will design, fabricate and test
silicon carbide-based metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET’s),
insulated-gate bipolar transistors and PiN diodes. These will be assembled into
10kV, 110 Amp half-bridge modules by Powerex, a program partner based in Youngwood,
Pa. Other teammates for the project include: GeneSiC, Gaithersburg, Maryland;
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia; Auburn
University, Auburn, Alabama; University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. Northrop
Grumman's Newport News sector in Newport News, Virginia, will design the solid-state
power substation. The Navy plans to incorporate this new technology on vessels
such as the new aircraft carrier (CVN-78). The Navy expects to realize a total
weight savings of 170 tons and a volume savings of 290 cubic meters from this
innovation.
"The U.S. Navy will benefit from these volume and weight reductions,
translating into more shipboard capacity to accommodate other mission-essential
sensors, systems, weapons and other equipment," said Steve McCoy,
director of advanced technology programs at Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems
sector. Company
News Release Alfalight Awarded $4.5 Million ARL Contract for Laser ResearchAugust 8, 2005...Alfalight has again won funding for laser research. The Madison, Wisconsin USA,
a company which was recently awarded a $1.4 million DARPA contract has also won $4.5 million from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi,
Maryland for the development of diode laser sources with 1kW output. Alfalight
expects the results of this contract to have a significant impact on diode source
brightness. They also expect the research findings to increase the power per laser
emitter, and they hope to produce new techniques for combining the output of several
laser emitters into one compact spot. The company says that the new contract could
help develop high-power laser modules for pumping fiber lasers or for direct materials
processing.
"The results of this program will have a significant impact on fundamental
diode source brightness and foster new techniques for delivering power from
multiple diodes into small spot sizes and fibers," said Manoj Kanskar,
vice president of Research and Development of Alfalight."This program
will provide a new diode-based high-energy laser architecture with important
defense and commercial applications," said Dr. Gary Wood, Chief of
Electro-optics & Photonics Division at ARL. "The system efficiency
and brightness of the laser diode source has the potential to make this suitable
for deployment in portable, close-range defense systems."
Senator Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, who was on hand for the company announcement
said, "This development program is expected to yield fundamental technology
improvements, commercial products, and potential for growth in jobs and market
share that benefit both Alfalight and the state of Wisconsin."Company News Release IBM Announces Fourth Generation SiGe Foundry TechnologyAugust 5, 2005...IBM announced its fourth generation 130nm silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) foundry technology called 8HP, which claims over twice the performance of the previous technology. The company says it also offers a lower cost variation of the 8HP technology specifically targeted at wireless applications that can enable longer battery life and increased functionality in cellular handsets to help proliferate wireless local area networking and global positioning satellite (GPS) technology. According to IBM CMOS chips are the foundation for digital computing applications, while silicon germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS chips provide enhanced radio frequency communications and analog functions in addition to the core digital computing capabilities.
"Silicon germanium technology is increasingly influencing next generation consumer devices and applications," said Bernie Meyerson, Chief Technologist for Systems & Technology Group, IBM. "IBM introduced the technology in 1989 to allow chip designers to increase computer performance. Over the years, SiGe revolutionized the wireless industry by providing a high volume Silicon-based technology. The fourth generation of SiGe will continue to enable wireless connectivity on an increasingly global scale."Company News Release
Court Vindicates Cree
LIGHTimes StaffAugust 4, 2005...After over two years the court has finally dismissed the class action lawsuit
initiated by Cree’s former senior manager, Eric Hunter who alleged company
wrongdoing. The company announced that the United States District Court for the
Middle District of North Carolina, USA has dismissed "in its entirety with
prejudice" the consolidated class action complaint previously pending against
Cree and certain of its current and former directors and officers. The court's
dismissal applies to all of the plaintiffs and all of their claims that were still
pending from the actions originally filed on Friday, June 13, 2003. 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 |
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The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Paul Jay Previews "Photonics North"August 9, 2005...Canada has been helping lead the photonics revolution (which includes LEDs)
for decades, but with recent downtimes, we haven't heard much from the land of
the Mounties. Compound semi industry veteran Dr. Paul Jay is helping change
that. As executive director of the Canadian
Photonics Consortium, Paul is helping lead this trade association through
events and conferences that support the Canadian government's trade missions
in photonics. One of the goals of the conferences and trade missions is to devise Canada's strategy for photonics
developments, especially for photonics development related to healthcare applications. Canada's
initiatives provide an excellent role model for other countries, so I asked
Paul to share with our audience the consortium's mission by previewing Photonics
North, an upcoming symposium slated for September 12-14 in Toronto. HB-LEDs
and OLEDs are very much included in the event. To follow is Paul's report, peppered
with his unique communications style and upbeat humor...JMcD
So What Else Would Canada Do With Its Photonics Technology?
by Paul Jay, Ph.D., Executive Director, Canadian
Photonics Consortium
The last few years have seen quite a regrowth of photonics activity as many
of the skill-sets nurtured in (and then downsized out of) the labs of Nortel,
JDS Uniphase, Bookham, etc. have now diffused into new applications sectors.
Teams of talented individuals are emerging in government labs, university research
teams, startup companies, and various established industries as new technology
opportunities are explored. A scan of the 300 plus papers in the program our
upcoming Photonics North
event, which will be held in Toronto Sept 12-14, 2005, shows precisely where
these new opportunities appear to be directed.
Three out of the nine sessions are packed with presentations on photonics in
biology, biosensors and medicine. Several of these papers come from teams working
with hospitals close to the University of Toronto, and reflect the energy and
leadership of Dr. Brian Wilson, who heads the Division of Biophysics and Bioimaging
at the Ontario Cancer Institute. Brian is also Professor of Medical Biophysics
at U of T and will be delivering one of the plenary talks at the conference.
His talk is titled Biophotonics: from Lab to Clinic and he will also
be the lunchtime speaker at the International Photonics Forum on Monday Sept
12th. Hopefully he will restrain himself from showing his slides of various
stages of surgery, out of respect for the luncheon guests!
Another of the plenary speakers reflects a Canadian business success story
that grows directly out of a biomedical photonics opportunity. Dr. Julia Levy
took an observed effect of light sensitive chemicals in naturally-occurring
cow parsley, and with some colleagues from the University of British Columbia
in Vancouver, founded QLT Inc., which has now become a world-leader in photodynamic
therapy. QLT's Visudyne therapy for age-related blindness received FDA
approval in April 2000. Julia will convey the excitement of cross-disciplinary
interactions between photonics experts and immunologists. Julia's type of reaction
is encountered frequently now as photonics specialists who had previously been
in the telecommunications sector find their experience of value in refreshingly
different contexts.
Just outside Quebec City, the National Optics Institute (NOI) is benefiting
from its proximity to Laval University to recruit some of the world-class graduates
and researchers from the well-developed optics and photonics programs in Laval's
Science and Engineering Faculties. Besides incubating successful startup companies
like Teraxion (advanced Bragg grating technology and dispersion compensation
devices), the NOI has also generated a major body of licensable intellectual
property (IP) in areas of collaboration, including: applications in the pulp
and paper industry, military, and security uses of photonics, and a recent
collaboration with the Food Research and Development Centre of Agriculture and
AgriFood Canada. This agriculture-sector project has demonstrated that an infrared
spectral absorption technique can clearly discriminate between two adjacent
vintages of a Shiraz red wine. How long will it be before a handheld LED-driven
version of that technique will become the 'must-have' gadget for oenophiles?
There is probably no shortage of volunteers for an exhaustive field trial of
the prototypes!
Despite the extensive cross-fertilization of photonics into other fields, Canada's
telecom sector continues to pursue significant advances in increasing the operational
cost-effectiveness of optical networks. The Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council (NSERC) recently funded a major joint project between several
Canadian Universities (McGill, McMaster, Ottawa, Queens, Toronto) and partner
companies (Nortel, JDS-Uniphase, BTI Photonics Systems Inc, Anritsu, Adtek Photomask,
and Telus) for a $7M (Cdn), 5-year program called All-Agile Photonic Networks.
While this project looks at some of the more far-reaching challenges, Ottawa-based
Tropic Networks recently landed almost $50M (Usd) of additional funding for
its development of ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexing) solutions
to the challenge of routing data streams entirely within the optical domain.
Another good reason to attend Photonics North is the Monday Sept 12th
International Photonics Forum. This more business-focussed event highlights
a variety of international strategies and case-studies of new emerging applications
of photonics. In a session on Imaging & Display Technologies, speakers
from the UK, USA and Korea will address commercialization aspects of new displays...
and organic LED (OLED) technology features strongly here, offering multiple
advantages of lower cost, reduced power consumption and weight, together with
improved brightness and viewing angle. Organic emitters will also be featured
in a session on Solid State Lighting, with talks on product development
from Philips in Germany and Enfis in the UK, as well as a review of the technology
behind Dave Irvine-Halliday's incredible Calgary, Canada-based Light
up the World Foundation. The LUTW initiative aims to bring LED illumination
to thousands of non-electrified homes in developing countries around the world.
The Photonics North conference series has grown out of meetings initiated
in Quebec several years ago, and last year's Ottawa meeting attracted over 1100
delegates and 115 Exhibitors. This year's organizers are the Toronto-based OPTIC
Photonics Cluster, together with the Canadian Photonics Consortium (CPC) and
SPIE and we're targeting 1500 delegates and 150 exhibitors. Plans are already
underway for Photonics North 2006 in Quebec City next June. CPC is an industry-trade
association based in Ottawa, and provides a function that layers across the
various regional photonics clusters. This currently involves four clusters:
The Quebec Photonics Network, the Ottawa Photonics Cluster, the Ontario Photonics
Industry Cluster, and the Vancouver-based British Columbia Photonics Industry
Association. There is currently discussion addressing the possibility of creating
a mid-western Provinces cluster to reflect the growing deployment of photonics
in the thriving oil/gas industry sectors. The CPC function provides support
in coordination of the various regional industry needs, articulating these upwards
towards government policy discussions and outwards to help with international
liaison and trade missions.
Now is the time to get on-line and plan your trip to Toronto for this exciting
3-day event, 12-14 September. In case you need another excuse, it occurs during
the second week of the hugely successful Toronto
Film Festival! You could spend one week encased in dark movie theaters and
a second week celebrating ingenuity with light! I look forward to seeing you
all in September. If you'd like to contact me directly... I'm Paul Jay, Executive
Director of the Canadian Photonics Consortium. My tel in Canada is (613) 828
6274 ext 220 and my email is: pjay@photonics.ca 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... |
