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Commentary: CS Vision in Vancouver
 
... You'll already be in Vancouver anyway, attending CS Mantech, April 24-27, so make plans now to intensify your visit to Canada by attending our CompoundSemi Vision 2006 forum for industry executives on Thursday, April 27th, from 1-6p, followed by an evening reception event. Co-chairs are Bruce Fornier, VP of...
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Fairchild Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Power Integrations
CompoundSemi News Staff

April 11, 2006...Power electronics company, Fairchild Semiconductor of South Portland, Maine USA, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Power Integrations, Inc. in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The suit alleges infringement of patent no. 5,264,719 by Power Integrations' pulse width modulation (PWM) products. Fairchild says it intends to stop Power Electronics from making, selling, or importing infringing products into the US. Additionally the company is seeking monetary damages for the alleged infringement. Fairchild indicated that while the two companies have been in litigation since 2004 in the state of Deleware, the new lawsuit is a separate action filed in the Eastern District of Texas. Tom Beaver, Fairchild's executive vice president for worldwide sales and marketing, said, “…Fairchild is asserting a patent that pre-dates Power Integrations' patents by at least fifteen months.” Fairchild News Release

Integrated Materials Seeks Asian Site for Manufacturing and Support Center
CompoundSemi News Staff

April 11, 2006...Integrated Materials says it is looking for a site for its Asian manufacturing and support center. Regions under consideration include: Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Singapore. The company plans to offer its semiconductor fabrication customers expanded technical and sales support in addition to increased capacity for SiFusion Furnaceware. The company’s SiFusion Furnaceware for poly silicon boasts the ability to reduce trace metal contamination in LPCVD. Company News Release

Aixtron Sells MOCVD System for GaAs Solar Cell R&D

April 11, 2006...Aixtron of Aachen, Germany, reports receiving an order for its MOCVD machine from the Saturn Joint Stock Company (Saturn JSC) based in Krasnodar, Russia. The device will reportedly be used for the mass production of gallium arsenide (GaAs) epitaxial materials for solar cell device structures. Aixtron said that while it has sold many MOCVD systems to companies in the Russia, the recent sale to Saturn JSC was the first sold to a Russian company to be used in the production of solar cells. Saturn JSC, which specializes in solar and storage batteries for spacecraft, said it will use the AIX 2600G3 for research and development of solar cells for use in satellites. Aixtron News Release

CS and LED Developers Among ACE Award Winners
CompoundSemi News Staff

April 10, 2006...EETimes gave out their Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE)Awards at a dinner ceremony at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California USA. Leo Mathew, the principal solid state engineer at Freescale Semiconductor, won the Innovator of the Year, for the invention of the inverted T-channel field-effect transistor (ITFET), which reportedly combines horizontal and vertical structures into a single transistor. According to EETimes, “The technology promises to extend progressive CMOS scaling to the 45-nanometer and finer process nodes.” The award for interconnect, passives and electromechanical products went to Avago Technologies and Lumileds Lighting for their Envisium Power PLCC-4 surface-mount LEDs . The Envisium Power PLCC4 was initially introduced before the semiconductor products group of Agilent Technologies became Avago. (Ref: Coverage). EETImes says that the Ultimate Product finalists were chosen by editors to be the most significant products introduced over the past 12 months. Winners were determined by a vote of EE Times and eeProductCenter readers.

TDK Ships 25GB Blu-ray Discs
CompoundSemi News Staff

April 10, 2006...TDK of Tokyo, Japan has begun shipping its 25 GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Discs. According to the company, the one-sided recordable media with about three times the capacity of conventional DVD’s is now being sent to retailers throughout the United States. TDK, a dominant company in digital recording solutions, says it is first to the market with bare Blu-ray Disc media. The company has set retail prices at $19.99 for a 25GB BD-R (recordable), $24.99 for a 25GB BD-RE (rewritable). TDK will reportedly also ship the 50GB Blu-ray Disc media later this year with retail pricing set at $47.99 for a 50GB BD-R (recordable) and $59.99 for a 50GB BD-RE (rewritable). While the 25 GB versions have a single layer, the 50 GB versions expected out later this year have a dual layer recording structure. After sending out mass production samples of the 25 GB media in December, the company issued the relevant license, and began mass production. TDK is offering a 50 spindle package of the recordable media for bulk configurations.

One of the technologies that the company says makes the media much more durable than other DVD’s is its hard coating called Durabis which the company claims increases scratch resistance by a factor of 100. In addition the coating reportedly resists fingerprints. TDK says the coating eliminates the need for the protective cartridge that was introduced with earlier prototypes of the Blu-ray discs. Along with the other benefitial properties TDK claimed for the technology, the Durabis coating rapidly discharges electricity, and resists the accumulation of dust.The media offers a 2X (72MBps) recording speed. The company has already created a quad layer 100GB prototype, and the company is working on producing the first 200GB prototype. TDK News Release

Gallium Arsenide Market Still Expected to Break $3 Billion in 2006
CompoundSemi News Staff

April 6, 2006...Compound Semiconductor market analysis company, Strategy Analytics of Boston, Massachusetts USA, has reiterated their prediction that the gallium arsenide (GaAs) market will break the $3 billion per year barrier in 2006. The company indicated that the market is in line with their previously released, long-term forecast report for the gallium arsenide market, which predicts a healthy 36% increase in total sales revenue for the industry from 2005 to 2010. The company sited the growth of the demand for multi-mode and multi-band cellular handsets for much of the increase. According to the report and their latest assertions this growth will help to offset the alternative service provider (ASP) erosion.

"It's not just a case of increasing handset shipments which helps to increase GaAs device demand from the handset market over the next five years," observed Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies service. "2006 and beyond will see the market shift towards EDGE/GPRS-based and WCDMA/EDGE multi-mode, multi-band architectures. This will actually increase the number of HBT and pHEMT die going into increasingly complex RF front-end module solutions." Company News Release

Mimix Broadband Goes Fabless
CompoundSemi News Staff

April 5, 2006...Mimix Broadband reports going 100% fabless. Mimix Broadband Inc. of Houston, Texas USA, a developer and supplier of microwave and millimeterwave gallium arsenide semiconductors has now reached a definitive agreement to sell its Santa Clara, California GaAs foundry facility to local tech company, Universal Semiconductor Technology Inc (USTI). Mimix has entered into a multi-year wafer supply and non-compete agreement with USTI which in effect guarantees that its customers have a continuous supply. Mimix purchased the Santa Clara foundry along with virtually all of the assets of Celeritek Inc. in June 2005. USTI will provide Mimix foundry services for GaAs MESFET, pHEMT, and HBT in addition to thin film silicon and ceramic circuit components and substrates. Also under the agreement, USTI agrees not to manufacture or sell products that compete with Mimix products. “This agreement is ideal, since it allows Mimix to be 100% fabless, while continuing to provide our customers with a continuous supply of the unique device intellectual property developed at Celeritek and now owned by Mimix,” stated Rick Montgomery, CEO, Mimix Broadband, Inc.

Mr. Bao Hua Zheng, Chairman of Universal Semiconductor Technology, Inc. commented, “USTI will have the opportunity to manufacture GaAs semiconductors, using proven and industry-leading processes, and the foundry will serve as a platform to develop new, cutting-edge processes to serve customers targeting the compound semiconductor industry.” Mimix Broadband News Release

SiCrystal Ships 3-Inch SiC Substrates

April 6, 2006...SiCrystal, a manufacturer of silicon carbide (SiC) substrates has begun shipping the semi insulating substrate in a 3” version. The German-based company points out quality improvements such as: low stress level, fewer micropipes, and superior homogeneity of resistivity (100% of wafer measures 105 Ohm cm. The company says the substrates can be used in power, radio frequency (RF), and optoelectronic applications. Company News Release

RFMD Ships WLAN Front-End Module for Handsets

April 5, 2006...RFMD, the radio frequency integrated circuit developer, announced volume shipments of its front-end module designed for embedded wireless WLAN in cellular handsets, the RF5925. According to the company who is attending CTIA Wireless 2006, the device is a complete front-end module that requires no external components, giving it what they claim is the smallest footprint area of any 802.11g front-end module on the market today. The device, designed for mobile phones, PDAs and other handsets, features a WLAN power amplifier (PA), switch, and receive balun. The company indicated that advanced wireless applications such as voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) are possible due to the device’s high data throughput and performance characteristics. Company News Release

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Commentary & Perspective...

CS Vision in Vancouver

April 11, 2006...You'll already be in Vancouver anyway, attending CS Mantech, April 24-27, so make plans now to intensify your visit to Canada by attending our CompoundSemi Vision 2006 forum for industry executives on Thursday, April 27th, from 1-6p, followed by an evening reception event. Co-chairs are Bruce Fornier, VP of business development of TriQuint and Bill Quinn, CTO of Veeco.

If you look closely at the agendas of the two co-located events [direct link to Mantech's agenda - direct link to CS Vision agenda] you'll see that we've planned it so that Mantech's closing sessions on Thursday morning segue perfectly into CS Vision's Thursday afternoon topics, with wide bandgap (WBG) materials and device strategy taking center stage.

I heartily recommend that the marketing people staffing the exhibits at Mantech be sure to extend their stay in Vancouver in order to collaborate with the industry executives attending CS Vision, the consummate "insiders meet". Marketing and sales people are sure to benefit tremendously by intensifying their vision of where the CS and SSL industries are truly headed... which is what Vision in Vancouver is all about. And I also heartily recommend that the executives planning on attending CS Vision make their plans to get to Vancouver earlier in the week so that they can visit the Mantech exhibits as well as attend some of the technical sessions. Mantech organizers have planned a repeat and expansion of last year’s successful and popular Exhibitors’ Forum which will take place on Tuesday April 25th from 1:30p to 3:20p (immediately following the Exhibits Luncheon), where exhibitors get to present their latest technologies and offerings in an especially informal and relaxed environment. TriQuint's Marty Brophy has put together an excellent lineup of exhibitors for Mantech. Take a look at the list of which companies will be exhibiting!

Speaking of TriQuint... (for a little "who's typically involved in this thing" framing history) TriQuint has always been one a prime supporter of our annual executive forum meets, known to many as the original CS Outlook events. At CS Outlook for 2005 Tom Cordner, who heads TriQuint Texas, served as co-chair (along with Bernd Schulte, COO of Aixtron) and at CS Outlook for 2004, TriQuint's CEO, Ralph Quincy chaired the event with David Reamer, who was then with Veeco. And as underscored above, TriQuint's VP of business development, Bruce Fornier will be co-chair along with Bill Quinn, CTO of Veeco.

Speaking of Veeco... in addition to contributing Bill's talent and help, Veeco will again helping sponsor and promote this very special half-day executive forum as our initial Diamond sponsor. Thanks Veeco! We really appreciate your continued support. P.S....There are still slots open for sponsorship of CS Vision, including the modest "Gold" level, which is a great way to show support for the co-location move that we've made for this event. Industry supporters can take a quick look at our CS Vision Promotion page and then sign-up online. For additional details on any aspect of the event, contact our president, Tom Griffiths. Tom can be reached in Austin at +1 512-257-9888 or by emailing him at 2006info@CompoundSemiVision.com. The team has put together an especially strong, intensive agenda for CS Vision.

CS Vision in Vancouver will kick off the way we've started past CS Outlook forums... with a supply and demand market update, which will be provided by Asif Anwar of Strategy Analytics. Then getting right into it, Robert Walker president and CEO of eLite Optoelectronics will present his current assessment of the LED industry impact on the compounds. Hailing originally as the head of Emcore's marketing and GM of their Pacific Rim operation before joining Vincera Ventures, as well as heading up Strategies Unlimited's Asian LED market studies, Bob Walker is unsurpassed in his leadership position in the advanced LED field and Solid State Lighting (SSL) industry and especially his knowledge of Asia. Bob Walker is again co-chair of our annual Solid State Lighting Suppliers Forum (SSLS 2006) in Taiwan in May. By the way, Bob's doing a great job at the helm of eLite now, a young company that has strong roots with both Emcore and AXT.

Speaking of AXT & Emcore (and Cree)... as those of you who read the updates of my model CS stock portfolio know, AXT is representative of the publicly traded companies that, like TriQuint, is finally enjoying a resurgence in their stock price. Whereas the overall gain in the portfolio has risen lately to 60%, AXT's stock has risen even more and TriQuint's stock is also undergoing a dramatic risee. Speaking at CS Vision for AXT will be co-founder of the company, Morris Young. Stars of the model CS stock portfolio continue to be Emcore and Cree. Emcore's stock has experienced the most dramatic rise of late and is finally getting back to close to the $10 range, which coincidentally is what it was assessed at back in the mid 1990s when it went for its IPO. (Keep things in perspective, however, by reminding yourself that lots of these longtime publicly held companies, such as Emcore, traded at well over $100/share before the market crash six or so years ago.) Cree's stock has put in the best overall showing of all however. Those four companies worth have moved beyond the 60% gain range, which, by any Wall Street standards is considered amazing and tremendous news! Emcore's Ivan Eliashevich, who directs the EMD efforts and oversees Emcore's role in GELcore with GE, will provide CS Vision attendees with the why's of Emcore's success and vision, while Cree's Primit Parikh will provide insight on Cree's strategy regarding GaN-based electronics.

Speaking of GaN, and the WBGs in general... two other speaker/leaders at CS Vision are keenly focused on the future of these amazing wide bandgap materials and devices. The two are: Kyma co-founder Drew Hanser, who serves that amazing gallium nitride (GaN) native substrate company as CTO and VP of Business Development. I'm firmly convinced that the remarkable pickup in the CS industry, and continued strength of the SSL industry, can be directly traced to the growing popularity of the wide bangap semiconductors, and GaN in particular. Come to CS Vision as see if you don't agree. If you were at our CS Outlook for 2005, you'll remember that Kyma's CEO Keith Evans (who was then still with Crystal IS) presided over a memorable WBG workshop. Keith got his start in this field at the Air Force Research labs (AFRL), and has been one of the major shakers/movers of Mantech. See how this all weaves together?

See how it all weaves together? Join us in Vancouver the last week in April and make it all work for you by taking an active part in CS Mantech and CS Vision. You can't believe where you might be headed next by meeting with and mixing with your fellow shakers and movers.

Register now for CS Vision and make your hotel reservations for the Hotel Vancouver for Wednesday and Thursday nights to extend your stay at Mantech to also attend Vision in Vancouver.

If you have news or views to share about the compound semiconductor, LED or solid state lighting industries
contact our Publisher, Tom Griffiths
His direct tel in Austin is +1-512-257-9888

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