Comlent and Agilent Team Up for SCDMA Reference Lab in China
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 20, 2006...Comlent Technology Inc., a fabless radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design
house of Shanghai, China, and Agilent Technologies are teaming up to establish
the “Comlent-Agilent TD-SCDMA Reference Lab (China).” According to
Agilent, the lab is oriented for R&D, test, and validation of RFIC, RF module
and mobile terminal performance. The lab will focus on following TD-SCDMA, the
third 3G international standard favored by China in addition to WCDMA and CDMA2000
mostly deployed in Europe and the United States respectively. Both companies hope
the lab will help to accelerate the development and maturity of RF technology
for China’s TD-SCDMA chain. Comlent
News Release Aixtron Expects Break Even in 2006
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 20, 2006...Aixtron of Frankfurt, Germany, hopes to break even after a sharp rise in semiconductor
equipment orders. Chief executive, Paul Hyland indicated that the company was
in good shape to profit from an upturn in demand from LED makers. The company
has integrated Genus, its acquisition from a year ago. According to the company,
orders rose 51 percent in the quarter ending in December to $45 million (37.6
million euros). The company’s estimates for the year remain conservative.
"A strong performance by our sales team in the fourth quarter of 2005
with equipment order intake up 51 percent sequentially may not signal the end
of a difficult period in the market but we hope it signals the beginning of
the end," Hyland said in a conference call. Company
News Release
Lite-On Technology Increases Investment in Automotive Electronics
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 20, 2006...Lite-On Technology of Taiwan, a maker of power supplies, imaging products,
and LEDs is to acquire 100% of Lite-On Automotive, maker of car-use security,
cruise control and tire-pressure monitoring devices. Lite-On will increase its
stake in Lite-On Automotive from 17.52% to 100% through a stock swap, Digitimes
reported. Lite-On Automotive will become a wholly owned subsidiary. Lite-On Technology is also apparently expanding into automobile electronics
with investments in Light-On IT, a maker of car-use DVD players, Actron Technology,
a producer of rectifier diodes, and Silitech Technology a manufacturer of car-use
keyboards. According to the article,
Lite-On Technology focuses primarily on energy management system production
power supplies. Aviza Gets Multiple System Order From SMICMarch 20, 2006...Aviza Technology Inc. has received an order for multiple LPCVD systems from
SMIC. Aviza Technology Inc. of Scotts Valley, California USA, a semiconductor
equipment maker announced receiving orders for multiple low pressure chemical
vapor disposition machines from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation
of Bejing. The systems ordered include the RVP-300plus and the RVP-550 thermal
processing systems. According to Aviza, the tools will be shipped to SMIC’s
Bejing Fab 4 facility. Aviza contends that the SMIC has the only Chinese owned
300mm fabrication facility in Beijing. Aviza indicated that SMIC will utilize
the LPCVD devices for DRAM production. Aviza
News Release Bookham to Sell and Leaseback UK Facility
Scott McMahanMarch 15, 2006...Optical component maker, Bookham Inc., headquartered in San Jose, California
USA, signed an agreement for the sale and associated leaseback of its Caswell,
UK, manufacturing facility with Scarborough Developments, a UK property investment
company. According to Bookham, the closing, which is subject to closing conditions,
is expected to occur on or before March 30, 2006. The immediate revenue generated
by the sale will be about £13.8 million (about $24 million at today's
exchange rates). As part of the transaction, the company agreed to enter into a long-term
lease of the facility with Scarborough Developments.
“With this latest transaction, Bookham will have raised approximately
$101 million from a public stock offering and the sale of various assets, including
this sale and leaseback of our
manufacturing facility in Caswell. In addition, in January we announced actions
that are expected to result in the retirement of all of Bookham’s long
term debt, which further strengthens our financial position,” said
Dr. Giorgio Anania, president and CEO of Bookham Inc. “We believe
Bookham now has one of the stronger balance sheets in the optical components
market, and we plan to leverage our improved financial position to better address
our growing markets.” Company
News Release.
The plan is apparently another effort to pay off debts and raise capital. In
September of 2005, the company sold some of its land in Wiltshire, UK to Abbeymeads
LLP for what was then the equivalent of $15.5 million. (Ref: Coverage).
APA to Focus on Epigrowth
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 15, 2006...APA Enterprises located in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, an optoelectronics component
maker and manufacturer of nitride epitaxial layers and custom optics, reported
selling its multi-wafer metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) operations
and related intellectual property. APA will receive $1.9 million in cash as
part of the revenue sharing and licensing agreement. According to the company,
the sale includes its multi-wafer MOCVD system, technical “know-how”
associated with its epigrowth technology, two heterojunction field effect transistor
patents, a pending patent application, and associated intellectual property.
The company said it will now concentrate on GaN products including UV detectors
and power amplifiers. Terms of the transaction do allow the company to sell
products applications of more than 1GHz. APA indicated that it will receive
an additional $100,000 in consulting fees over the course of one year as part
of the agreement. Company
News Release Skyworks Ramps Production of Front-End ModulesMarch 14, 2006...Skyworks Solutions of Woburn, Massachusetts USA, has begun producing their Intera
front-end modules for wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) applications.
The company indicated that the increased production supports several soon-to-be-released platforms from a leading handset OEM (Original Equipment manufacturer).
The company says that they simplify RF design while taking up little boardspace,
and they support virtually any broadband connection and emerging high-speed
downlink access (HSDPA) applications. Company
News Release EM4 Exhibits Optoelectonic Components at Military Technology ConferenceMarch 14, 2006...EM4, a maker of lasers and optoelectronic components, exhibited its products
at the Military Technology Conference in Boston, Massachusetts. Included among
its exhibited products are the company’s high power pump lasers, high
speed photo diode receivers, and directly modulated lasers for USA defense and
homeland security. According to the company, their active optical devices are
designed to provide the high power, reliability and durability required for
a range of defense applications including satellite communication, range finders,
illuminators, target designators, missiles, aircraft, and smart munitions. According
to EM4, their design incorporates high coupling efficiency of optical transmission.
The Military Technology Conference runs March 14-15. Company News Release California Universities Join to Establish the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 13, 2006...The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the University
of California-Santa Barbara, the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford
are teaming up to launch what the Stanford News Service calls “one
of the world's largest joint research programs focusing on the pioneering technology
called spintronics." Spintronics is electronics that takes advantage
of the magnetic states, spin up, spin down, and on, and off. The two states
spin up and spin down are what differentiates the it from conventional binary
electronics. (Ref: Wikipedia).
To use the technology, engineers are looking to materials other than silicon.
Stanford University News reported that nearly 30 eminent researchers will work
for the institute which will be headquartered at UCLA Engineering. Scientific
and technical responsibility will be distributed across all four campuses. Using
spin of an electron to carry information, the researchers hope to eventually
help develop the technology to minimize power consumption and maximize processing
speed, and minimize size for next-generation electronics.
UCLA Engineering Professor Kang Wang will serve as the director of the Institute.
He will work closely with professors David Awschalom at UCSB, Jeff Bokor at
UC Berkeley, and Philip Wong at Stanford. "Researchers in this institute
want to not only look at physics and materials, but also explore devices, circuits
and systems," Wong said. "With this new institute, we are
talking about an unprecedented opportunity to help define a technology that
can exploit the idiosyncrasies of the quantum world to provide key improvements
over existing technologies," he added. "As rapid progress
in the miniaturization of semiconductor electronic devices leads toward chip
features smaller than 65 nanometers in size, researchers have had to begin exploring
new ways to make electronics more efficient. Simply put, today's devices, which
are based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor standards, or CMOS, can't
get much smaller and still function properly and effectively. That's where spintronics
comes in."
IBM Fellow Stuart Parkin, Stanford Physics Professor Zhang, and Electrical Engineering
Professor Harris will co-direct the IBM-Stanford Spintronic Science and Applications
Center (SpinAps, for short). "The spintronics effort at Stanford is
based upon the ongoing research collaboration with IBM through the SpinAps Center
and the unique materials, characterization and device capabilities of the Stanford
Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and the molecular beam epitaxy labs at Stanford
and IBM," Harris said. The Institute is being funded with starting
grants of $18.2 million. This includes an industrial support total of $14.38
million and a matching $3.84 million UC Discovery Grant from the Industry-University
Cooperative Research Program, which seeks to strengthen California's research-and-development
economy in partnership with California research-and-development companies. The
$18.2 million in total starting grants includes $2.38 million from a Nanoelectronics
Research Initiative grant funded by six major semiconductor companies -- Intel,
IBM, Texas Instruments, AMD, Freescale and MICRON. Intel contributed 2 additional
grants totaling $12 million. Funds will be distributed over a four-year period.
Stanford
News Release Nichia Boasts 100 Lumens/W for Packaged White LEDs (Clarification)
Scott McMahanMarch 16, 2006...A spokesman for Nichia reported to EE Times that a prototype of a
new white LED has achieved the significant milestone of 100 lumens per watt.
Nichia may be the first to publicly claim 100 lumens per watt for packaged white LEDs.
A Nichia spokesperson said in the article
that no white LED chips have been previously been developed with triple-digit
efficiency. The company reportedly revealed prototypes of the LEDs in the form
of a pendant light and a spotlight. The prototype pendant light delivered 4,536 lumes with a 45-W input utilizing 756 units of the white LED chip. The spotlight prototype consisted of 80 chips and delivered 480 lumens with 4.8-W input. Both lighting devices achieved around 100 lm/w efficiency. While a milestone, the device uses only
20 mA of power. Nichia took the approach of using multiple chips packaged together instead of using higher power for each chip to acheive high brightness. -Scott Mc
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