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March 27, 2006...Kyma Technologies, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina USA, has signed
an agreement with the US Naval Research Laboratory to research and develop gallium
nitride (GaN) field effect transistor (FET) technology. The goal of the cooperative
research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL) is to advance GaN FET technology for high-speed, high-power electronics
technologies. According to Kyma, the CRADA will specifically investigate the
potential for low defect density native GaN substrates to enable improvements
in the performance and reliability of high power radio-frequency (RF) transistors
based both on conventional GaN field effect transistor (FET) designs and on
novel FET designs. Kyma hopes that the research and development effort will
benefit from recently announced improvements in their semi-insulating (SI) GaN
product line.
The NRL program managers for the CRADA are Dr. Steve Binari and Dr. David Storm.
Kyma’s co-founder Dr. Drew Hanser will serve as the technical lead for
Kyma. NRL’s Dr. Binari reportedly presented results of the Kyma-NRL collaboration
including X-band GaN FET results at the recent Workshop on Compound Semiconductor
Materials and Devices (WOCSEMMAD) held earlier this year in Scottsdale, Arizona.“Our
existing collaboration with NRL has produced encouraging early materials and
device results, showing excellent epitaxial growth and very good device performance
up into the X-band,” Dr Hanser said. “We look forward to
working closely with the NRL team to develop FETs that have both the performance
and the reliability required for use in advanced military systems.”
Company
News Release Veeco Introduces Two Scanning Probe Microscope Products
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 27, 2006...Veeco has introduced two new scanning probe microscope products. The Multimode
V SPM and the Dimension V SPM. Both feature the company’s Nanoscope controller
which the company says enables researchers to see faster molecular scale events,
capture more information in every image and work with "one-button"
simplicity. The MultiMode SPM is the world's best-selling SPM. It performs the
full range of AFM and STM (scanning tunneling microscopy) techniques to measure
surface characteristics like topography, elasticity, friction, adhesion, and
magnetic/electrical fields. The Dimension V is ideal for micro- and nanoscale
studies and applied materials research; industrial product development and quality
control; and critical feature metrology, failure analysis, and electrical characterization.
Company
News Release Optellent Introduces OptoBERT for Less Expensive BERTMarch 27, 2006...Test and measurement company, Optellent of San Jose, California USA has introduced
what they say is the optimal approach to bit error rate detection (BER) testing
in a compact and cost-efficient product dubbed, OptoBERT. President and CEO,
Vinod Ramakrishnan stated, "The OptoBERT is ideal for many organizations
for which a full-featured BERT is simply overkill. This unit provides ease of
use, compactness, portability, and automated data archiving and, perhaps of
paramount importance to many users, it provides a savings of 70-80% over conventional
BERTs.” Company
News Release DOE to Fund SSL and Compound Semi Research
LIGHTimes StaffMarch 22, 2006...The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the solid state lighting
development projects selected to receive support from the National
Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The NETL selected 16 applications for solid
state lighting core technology development. The University of California, Santa
Barbara, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgia Tech University, and Purdue
University are among the Institutions to be given funding for their research.
Sandia National Laboratories was selected in the lab call for three LED related
projects. The goal of the NETL-supported research is to develop technologies that support an
overall efficiency of 50 percent by 2025. LIGHTimes Secondpage members can read the extended version... SatCon Reports Contract Win and Purchase Order
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 23, 2006...Power electronics company, SatCon of Boston, Massachusetts USA, received a
purchase order from Azure Dynamics Corporation for the production of 50 systems
for use on hybrid electric vehicles, in a delivery fleet application. According
to SatCon, the ordered products include: a brushless DC motor (rated at 250
- 350 VDC input, 3 Hp), motor controller, and a DC/DC power converter (rated
to 120 Amps continuous) which lowers the DC bus voltage from 350 VDC (nominal)
to 12 - 14 VDC to power conventional automotive electrical components and systems.
SatCon
News Release.
SatCon also announced Wednesday receiving a follow-on purchase for its StarSine
Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supply (RUPS) from the National Institute of Technology
and Standards. According to SatCon, the contract to provide a turnkey solution
including design, delivery, and installation came from a GSA federal supply
schedule through Baldwin Technologies Inc. The device is connected directly
to SatCon's patented flywheel for short duration power disturbances and is integrated
with a diesel engine to provide a seamless transfer and long-term power in the
case of an extended outage. SatCon
News Release Kyma Introduces Commercial Bulk GaN
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 21, 2006...Kyma Technologies announced the availability of improved semi-insulating (SI)
GaN substrates and the addition of a new product line based on non-polar and
semi-polar GaN substrates. Earlier in the month of March, the company received
additional backing from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) Missile
Defense Agency (MDA). In addition to being critical for military radar, native
GaN might be used for commercial applications including: power switching electronics,
high-power radio-frequency electronics, solid state lighting, optical storage
(blue lasers), bioagent and chemical sensing, and ultraviolet detection. (Ref:
Coverage)
According to Dr. Ed Preble, Kyma’s vice president of engineering, Kyma
has optimized its SI GaN boule growth process to effectively eliminate the conductive
regions which can limit the resistivity uniformity of SI GaN substrates. Dr.
Preble commented, “Based on several different sets of electrical characterization
data from our collaboration partners, we realized we needed to eliminate the
effects of certain conductive defects. We believe our new SI GaN products will
enable our customers to attain better high frequency transistor performance
and to benefit from better electrical isolation between adjacent devices.”
Company
News Release Integrated Materials Launches SiFusion Poly Silicon FurnacewareMarch 23, 2006...Integrated Materials Inc. of Sunnyvale, California USA, has launched its furnaceware
called SiFusion which they say demonstrates performance superior to quartz and
silicon carbide. Additionally the company touts the device’s ability to
reduce defect density and increases furnace throughput. According to the company,
the suite of SiFusion furnaceware includes furnace boats, towers, injectors
and pedestals designed to fit furnaces manufactured by ASM, Aviza, Hitachi-Kokusai
and Tokyo Electron. Company
News Release Sony Debuts Blu-ray Player, Recorder, and PC
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 21, 2006...Sony has debuted its first Blu-ray Disc (BD) products including a home player,
Vaio desktop and Laptops, an internal computer drive sold separately, and recordable/writable
media, according to an article
on CNET. Among the newly released products are the BDP-S1 Blu-ray Disc player
and the Vaio RC desktop computer. The suggested retail price for the player
is about $1000. The Vaio PC with Blu-ray drive should cost about $2300 and will
be available by early summer.
In April, Sony plans to begin shipping 25GB BD-R (write once) and BD-RE (rewritable)
discs for about $20 and $25 respectively. The 50GB BD-R and BD-RE dual-layer
discs will come in subsequent months for about $48 and $60 respectively. According
to a separate article on
CNET, Sony’s Blu-ray disc recorder will be priced at around $3800 for
its Japanese release in April.
In February, the nine companies promoting Blu-ray Disc technology (Hitachi,
LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics,
Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson) announced the start of licensing,
the article indicated. 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 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
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