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Editorial: SSLS 2006 This Week in Taiwan
... Don't expect anyone who's a true shaker/mover in the international solid state lighting (SSL) supply chain to be in their offices this week. They'll all be at the Ambassador Hotel in Hsinchu, Taiwan at the fourth annual international Solid State Lighting Suppliers Forum, SSLS 2006, the event formerly known...
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May 9, 2006...Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA, announced that it has signed a five
year supply agreement and has entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement
with Seoul Semiconductor. The patent cross-licensing agreement gives Seoul Semiconductor,
a Korean-based company headquartered in Seoul, the right to use Cree’s
white LED patent (US patent # 6,600,175).
During the first five quarters of the agreement, Seoul Semiconductor has committed
to purchase a minimum of $40 million of Cree LED products. According to Cree,
commitments for subsequent periods will be negotiated annually. The agreement
extends through June 2011. Cree says that an extension of up to five years is
possible if certain sales conditions are met. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... Filtronic plc In Talks to Sell Wireless Infrastructure BusinessesMay 8, 2006...Filtronic plc of London reported Friday that it is in talks to sell its wireless
infrastructure businesses to US group, Powerwave Technologies Inc. Specifically
the exclusive talks are to sell the transmit and receive module and power amplifier
businesses to the US company, according to an article
by Reuters news service. The company however indicated that the sale
was still uncertain. In January company CEO, John Roulston quit. A company spokesman
told Reuters that Filtronic had not yet found a new CEO. Sales of the company
stock which had gone down 25 percent since January, reportedly rose 15 percent
as of London’s market close on Friday. Emcore Posts Strong Earnings in All Business SegmentsMay 9, 2006...Emcore reported that revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 which ended
March 31, were $41.2 million. This is an increase of 35 percent from the $30.4
million reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2005 and an increase of $1.3
million, or 3%, from the $39.9 million in the previous quarter. According to
the company, all three of its operating segments, Fiber Optics, Photovoltaics
and Electronic Materials and Devices, posted revenue increases year over year.
Sequentially, Fiber Optics and Electronic Materials and Devices showed a slight
revenue increase, while Photovoltaics experienced a marginal revenue decrease
of 4 percent. During the quarter the company received the final earn-out payment
from the sale of the equipment division to Veeco Instruments in 2003. Emcore
also completed the acquisition of K2 Optronics, an optical communication and
laser company, during the quarter. (Ref: Coverage).
Mr. Reuben F. Richards Jr., President & CEO commented, “On the
terrestrial solar front, we are excited about our prospects. We have bids out
on approximately 40 megawatts of installations with contracts to be awarded
in 2006 for installations beginning in 2007. Meanwhile, we are presently working
with other customers and have made initial shipments of terrestrial based solar
cells to 5 solar concentrator companies, including the 2 major system manufacturers
in Europe and Asia.” Quarterly
Earnings Report Sensors Unlimited, Goodrich Corp. Introduces New Shortwave Infrared CameraMay 8, 2006...Sensors Unlimited, Goodrich Corp., a maker of shortwave infrared components,
cameras, and systems utilizing indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) technology,
has introduced a new shortwave infrared (SWIR) windows snapshot camera. The
SU640DWH-1 high resolution camera reportedly comes with proprietary image ananlysis
software. According to the company, the camera is ideal for near-infrared imaging
applications such as image capture of fast-moving objects, SWIR motion analysis,
and thermal imaging of combustion or rocket plumes. The camera can also be used
for machine vision, pulsed laser beam profiling and other applications where
advanced windowing test and functionality is required. Company
News Release Bookham Net Loss Narrows and Revenues Rise Year Over YearMay 5, 2006...Bookham Technologies Inc. of San Jose, California USA, an optical component company, reported 63 percent lower GAAP
net losses for Q3 of fiscal 2006 compared to the same period of 2005. The GAAP net losses
for the quarter totalling $48 million included $18.6 million for early dept retirement,
$2.4 million in restructuring charges, and $7.2 million to settle a lawsuit
related to the New Focus acquisition. Revenues also improved from $49.9 million
in Q3 of 2005 to $53.4 million in Q3 of 2006. Company
Financial Results SMI Completes Phase II of SBIR Program to Produce Antimonide HBTsMay 5, 2006...Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI) reports that it has completed Phase II of a small business innovative research (SBIR) program sponsored by the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA). SMI teamed with Sarnoff Corporation to produce antimonide-based hetero-junction bipolar transistors (HBTs) to enables very low voltage operation. The company reportedly reached the program’s goal of achieving near zero voltage device turn-on and very high speed (>40 GHz) operation. According to the company, the success of the program helps enable high speed, low power devices for communications, measuring instruments, and other applications. Company News Release
Spire Subsidiary, Bandwidth Semiconductor Offers GaAs Concentrator Solar CellsMay 5, 2006...Spire Corporation located in Bedford, Massachusetts USA, announced that Bandwidth Semiconductor, its wholly owned subsidiary, is now offering GaAs concentrator solar
cells for terrestrial applications. According to Spire, the concentrator cells
are based on the company’s space and terrestrial GaAs solar cell technology
developed over the last 25 years. In that time, Spire says it has produced record
high cell efficiencies for terrestrial applications. This translates to lower
cost electricity.
Bandwidth Semiconductor, which operates a complete compound semiconductor device
fabrication line, says it provide customized GaAs cells designed and manufactured
to meet specific customer requirements. The customization options include: operating
temperature, cell size, and concentration. Unlike regular solar cells, concentrator solar cells use lenses to concentrate sunlight onto the photovoltaic cells.Spire
News Release JDSU Claims Photovoltaic RecordMay 5, 2006...JDSU of Milpitas, California USA, announced that it has achieved a world record
in photovoltaic efficiency. The company’s Photonic Power Business Unit,
which specializes in the transmission of power over optical fiber, reported
achieving the record for converting laser light into electrical power. The company
claims that their 3 volt and 5 volt gallium arsenide (GaAs) photovoltaic power
converter (PPC) has achieved an optical to electrical conversion efficiency
greater than 50 percent. JDSU pointed out that an efficiency of greater than
50 percent pushes the boundaries for the maximum theoretical limit for photovoltaic
power conversion.
The company says that this breakthrough could allow fiber optics to replace copper
cable for power delivery in environments in which electrical isolation is essential
such as operating in high voltage, radio frequency/electro magnetic interference
(RF/EMI) and magnetic fields. Such environments make using copper cables more
complex or impractical. According to the company the PPCs would be ideally suited
to power a variety of medical, industrial sensor, or wireless communication
devices such as transducers, transceivers or tower mounted cellular and digital
TV relay stations. Other applications might include powering underground exploration, and powering medical
devices inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. Company
News Release Will the Real NEC Please Stand Up?
Scott McMahanMay 4, 2006...The idea of stealing intellectual property is nothing new. Counterfeit, inferior
products abound around the world. Cheap knock-offs of everything from Rolexes
to things in our realm such as LEDs can be easily obtained. However, one company
in the home electronics arena took counterfeiting to a new level. They attempted
to make an entire counterfeit company bearing the name NEC. This is not just
a case of someone putting up a website trying to imitate an NEC website through
phishing. According to an article in the New York Times, in mid-2004, managers
at the real NEC began receiving reports of blank CD and DVD disks and pirated
keyboards bearing the NEC name were reportedly being sold in Beijing and Hong
Kong, a New York Times article
stated.
After an extensive investigation requiring thousands of man-hours, NEC officials
uncovered a company that was not just making inferior copies of their products,
the company was attempting to convince the world that it was NEC. For a while
it worked. The company had set up a parallel NEC brand with 50 factories in
China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The fake company “licensed” products,
its workers carried NEC business cards, and it signed contracts and supply orders
in the company’s name. The real NEC is was tight-lipped because of pending litigation. Hopefully, we don’t see this in the solid
state lighting or compound semiconductor industries. But if there is money to
be made, it will probably happen eventually. We have on occasion covered NEC;
If we covered the fake company, it was not intentional. This my be something
to look out for in the future, company identity theft... Veeco Ganzilla II Again Selected by Taiwanese HB-LED ManufacturersMay 2, 2006...Veeco Instruments, a maker of metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)
systems, has reportedly received several multi-unit orders for its GaNzilla
II system from Taiwanese HB-LED makers. Some of the Taiwanese customers include
Huga Optotech Inc., Highlink Technology Corp., Epitech Technology Corporation.
The current orders add to the GaNzilla II systems each company has. (Ref: coverage).
Additionally, the company says it has sold several GaNzilla I reactor upgrade
kits, which allow customers to increase performance to that of GaNzilla II systems.
Company
News Release 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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Commentary & Perspective...
SSLS 2006 This Week in Taiwan
May 8, 2006...Don't expect anyone who's a true shaker/mover in the international solid state
lighting (SSL) supply chain to be in their offices this week. They'll all be
at the Ambassador Hotel
in Hsinchu, Taiwan at the fourth annual international Solid State Lighting Suppliers
Forum, SSLS 2006, the event
formerly known as BLUE. That's where virtually all SSL business
of key importance will be underway. Anyone who's attended our earlier Blue
events knows that nothing beats the face-to-face dynamics that you experience
at this very unique industry forum.
The list of illuminaries on the speaker agenda
(and VIPs who have registered to simply sit in the audience and listen)
is truly outstanding. This year's get together begins Tuesday morning, May 9th,
with a first-of-its-kind workshop led by Jeffrey Miller of the International
Association of Lighting Designers. Jeff will help LED manufacturers and packagers
especially, understand precisely what it is lighting designers require in the
way of reliability, standards, and new product design. Jeff keys in on the human
factors we sometimes forget, which are the real drivers of architectural
lighting. Coming out of this workshop, attendees should be better equipped to
help bridge the gap between what those on the supply side of SSL think, feel,
and believe...and what the end users really want, need, and demand. (Ref:
last week's McD Report: Supplier's
Challenge)
Following that is a second morning workshop organized by Taiwan SSL experts,
which will give attendees an opportunity to exchange news and views on Taiwan's
current SSL programs and initiatives. Instructing will be Professors Jeng-Yang
Chang, Ching-Cherng Sun, and ITRI director Daniel Y. Chu. This is an excellent
opportunity for those selling into, supporting (or competing with) the Taiwan
market to get to know one another better.
The SSLS 2006 exhibits,
which run throughout the event, will open at noon on Tuesday. Then the main
conference gets underway at 1 pm with opening greetings by our three conference
co-chairs, Dr. Yung-Sheng Liu, senior advisor of the Taiwan Industrial Technology
Research Institute (ITRI), George Mueller, founder chairman of Color Kinetics,
and Robert Walker, president & CEO of BridgeLux (formerly eLite Opto). Each
will be heard later in sessions in more detail, as speakers and panel moderators.
SSLS 2006 runs through noon Thursday, May 11th.
Drs. Liu and Walker have kindly co-chaired and have been featured speakers at previous
BLUE events. George Mueller, who delivered our keynote address at last year's
meet, was such a hit that he volunteered to do a repeat and updated performance
at this year's SSLS. His keynote talk this year, which is slated for 4:30pm, just
before the big Grand Banquet Wednesday evening, is titled The Progress and
Promise of Intelligent Solid-State Lighting: Taking LEDs from Niche to Mainstream.
We expect a full house for that talk and the banquet, which is being generously
sponsored by Aixtron.
I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank our primary sponsors, which
include: Aixtron, Veeco, Tecore, Rubicon, BridgeLux, KLA Tencor, Intematix,
Epistar, Dow Corning, and Monocrystal. Our gold sponsors include, Forepi, Accent,
Chroma, SemiLEDs, Praxair, Epichem, Suss MicroTec, and NuSil and our media and
contributing sponsors are Strategy Analytics, our own LIGHTimes and SolidState
Lighting.net, and IOP's Compound Semiconductor magazine and LEDs Magazine.
Without them, the industries we serve simply wouldn't be as robust, responsive
and relevant. Any time you see a sponsor's name and logo on an event, in a print
magazine, or online you know it means they've given their wholehearted support
to that information conduit and we all appreciate their ongoing support of our
respective efforts and enterprises.
Take a minute to ask yourself... Why is this all so important? What's at
stake? Why all the hype? Start by scrolling
down the SSLS 2006 agenda for yourself to see precisely who the featured
speakers are at SSLS 2006. Scan the topics and read the explanations of their
talks and panel discussions. We designed the agenda to literally tell the story
of the current state of the solid state lighting industry. That story starts
with overviews by our first keynoter, Bob Steele of Strategies Unlimited, followed
by Asif Anwar of Strategy Alalytics. Supply and demand. It all boils down to
supply and demand. Note that on Tuesday afternoon at the close of the
regional reports, we have the pleasure of hearing from Ms. Wu Ling, from mainland
China. She's the general secretary of China's Directorate of Solid State
Lighting. It's exciting to me to know that a country as huge as mainland
China actually has a directorate of SSL. And their emphasis is on SSL
as a crucial means of helping preserve our precious and brittle global environment.
As it says in the tease for Wu Ling's SSLS 2006 talk... "China is embracing
what is most likely the broadest solid state lighting initiative of any government,
and with good reason."
As I write this, looking out at our ranch in Texas in the USA... where we put
the natural environment first and try to practice an environmentally sane and
sensible lifestyle each and every day as we run Legacy Ranch as a native wildlife
refuge, I got to thinking about countries like China, where huge human populations
present tremendous and complex challenges. Last year, when Wu Ling kindly spoke
at Blue 2005. She brought up some especially important points and told of her
country's SSL alliance initiatives that I dearly wish were going on within all
the world's governments. To quote her conclusions: 1) SSL is the key strategy
of China's energy policy. 2) China has a huge illumination application market.
3) China's central and local government are strongly committed to the next 5
year SSL budget planning. 4) China promotes an open-door policy and mutual benefit
environment. And she closed with #5... welcoming everyone to come and join China
in their goals to develop SSL application industries and markets, and develop
key SSL technologies. We look forward to hearing Wu Ling's 2006 update at SSLS
2006. We will be reporting on hers and other key talks.
Mainland China is the fastest growing economy in the world, and that country
is clearly dedicated to incorporating solid state lighting solutions as a means
of lessening their electricity demands by a considerable amount. By switching
to LED lighting, projected savings by 2015 in China are estimated by Wu Ling's
group to be 100 B KWh/Yr. To call attention to the needs and goals, the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games are being tagged as the "Olympics of Light."
Of the many reasons VIPs from the SSL supply chain attend our SSLS meet in Taiwan
each year, getting to more about the overall Asian marketplace is of prime importance, and
getting to know the shakers/movers from mainland China is critical. They, with
industry guidance from SSL industry professionals throughout Asia, Europe, and
the USA are literally leading the solid state lighting revolution. The three key international SSL industry meetings for our industry are: 1)
Strategies in Light
(SIL) in California at the beginning of each year, 2) our annual Solid
State Lighting Suppliers Forum, SSLS, in Taiwan which is going on this week
in Hsinchu, and 3) China's International
Forum on Solid State Lighting, CIFSSL, which this year will be held July
12-14 in Shenzhen, China. The website for the meet is www.china-ssl.org.
LIGHTimes and SolidState Lighing.net are proudly helping sponsor CIFSSL
in July. So... as I see it, the formula for achieving success in the
Solid State Lighting industry is shaping up to read: SIL+SSLS+CIFSSL.
If you're at those three events, you have all you need to know. Have a great
meet at SSLS 2006 in Taiwan this week, and don't forget to sign up for CIFSSL in Shenzhen
City in July. 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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