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Editorial: BridgeLux Is Ideally Typical of Next Push in Solid State Lighting
... The solid state lighting (SSL) industry is deeply rooted in the compound semi (CS) industry. If you haven't been around compound semi circles recently, you might think that SSL looks like the classic overnight success. Not so. Like so many of the compounds (GaAs for example), today's and tomorrow's...
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Boeing Subsidiary, Spectrolab Awarded Contract for Solar Concentrator Cells
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 30, 2006...Boeing subsidiary, Spectrolab, has been awarded a 12-month contract to produce
and deliver 600,000 solar concentrator cells to renewable energy company, SolFocus
of Palo Alto, California USA.(Ref: Editorial Coverage). According to Boeing, the concentrator cells will
be used to convert rays from the sun into usable electricity for consumers and
businesses. Boeing says that the concentrator cells will be capable of generating
more than 10 megawatts of power. This is estimated to be enough for 4,000 US
homes. When the sunlight is concentrated, Boeing boasts that the average solar
cell efficiency is above 35. Boeing points out that at this rate of efficiency,
Spectrolab's concentrator photovoltaic cells can be more economical than electricity
generated from conventional, flat panel photovoltaic systems.
Spectrolab will use multi-junction solar cells and light concentrating optics.
Boeing contends that the cost of the mult-junction solar cells, which previously
were used primarily in satellites, will be offset because fewer cells are required due
to the use of the concentrators. In addition the improved efficiency, only a small fraction
of the cell area is needed to generate the same power output of crystalline
silicon or thin-film, flat-plate modules.
"Companies on the cutting edge of the renewable energy revolution
come to us because we are the world's leading manufacturer of solar cells,"
said Charles Toups, vice president of engineering for Boeing Space and Intelligence
Systems. "Our Spectrolab subsidiary has leveraged its expertise in
space photovoltaic products to create solar cells with record-breaking efficiencies
for Earth-based applications."
"Our mission is to deliver reliable solar-generated electricity at
wholesale energy prices, and Spectrolab's multi-junction concentrator solar
cells are key to making that possible," said Gary D. Conley, CEO of
SolFocus. "Spectrolab's cells will be integrated into our upcoming
solar concentrator field test program and then into the first phase of active
deployments." Boeing
News Release Norstel Opens SiC Production Facility
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 30, 2006...
II-VI and SemiSouth are not the only companies who have opened a new silicon
carbide (SiC) production facility in recent weeks. Norstel of Norrköping,
Sweden, officially opened its new facility on August 29. Thomas Östros,
Swedish Minister for Industry and Trade and Mr. Mattias Ottosson, Chairman of
the Municipal Executive Board in Norrköping, attended the Grand Opening
of the 2000m2 (about 21,500 sq. ft.)facility.
According to the company, the construction of the plant began in February 2005.
Norstel contends that the facility, which was designed and equipped with advanced
infrastructure, process tools, and characterization equipment, is among the
most technologically advanced sites focused strictly on producing single crystal
SiC materials. The company also stated that the environmental impact is minimized
through the use of sophisticated waste gas systems and in-house treatment of
used process chemicals and waste water. All operations are strictly in accordance
with the environmental permits granted by the Swedish authorities.
"We are now taking a major step towards establishing Norstel as a
significant supplier of Silicon Carbide materials" said Dr. Asko Vehanen,
CEO of Norstel. "Our technology is based on the patented High Temperature
Chemical Vapor Deposition (HTCVD) technique. Making this method truly industrial
will enable Norstel to produce high-quality large-diameter SiC crystals and
wafers cost-efficiently, thereby opening new markets and applications."
Company
News Release IQE's Operating Loss Narrows as Revenues Grow
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 30, 2006...IQE reported significant revenue growth and narrowing operating loss for the
first half of 2006 (ending June 30, 2006). During the first half of 2006, IQE
increased revenue 30 percent to £14.591m (USD $27.784 million) compared
to £11.225m (USD $21.375 million) during the same period of 2005, and it increased
revenue by 51 percent sequentially. The company reports reducing its operating
loss of £2.956m (USD $5.629 million) in H2/2005 by 50.9 percent to £1.450m (USD $2.760
million) for H1/2006. This represents a
53.4 percent drop in operational loss compared to the first half of 2005.
IQE reported that all markets for the Group's products continue to show solid,
sustainable growth, with the wireless marketplace particularly strong. The company
said that during the first half of 2006, it won an additional two-year extension
of effective exclusivity to its largest outsource contract. In August, IQE completed
the acquisition of the Electronic Materials Division of Emcore Inc. becoming
what IQE touts as the leading outsource supplier of advanced wafers to the semiconductor
industry.
Commenting on the results, Dr Drew Nelson, President and CEO, said "As
expected, the first half of 2006 has demonstrated continuing growth in all key
market sectors. We have continued to build on our reputation for technical excellence
and highly cost effective outsourcing as evidenced by the two year extension
of exclusivity to our largest outsource contract. With the recent acquisition
of EMD providing the Group with a complete portfolio of advanced wafer products,
we will take full advantage of the strong market conditions.“ Company Financial Results SMI Awarded Another Phase I SBIR Grant
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 30, 2006...Structured Materials Industries has received another Phase I Small Business
Innovative Research Grant from the military. (Ref: Aug
23 Coverage, and Aug
25 Coverage). This latest research grant comes from the Defense Advanced Research Project
Agency (DARPA). The grant is to use MOCVD deposited filter coatings to improve performance
of the Solarc high intensity discharge (HID), metal halide arch lamp made by
Welch Allen. The goal of research is to maximize the desired light output and
minimize non-useful light output.
According to SMI, the process will be designed to be a high volume production
worthy process once optimized. SMI says it will be collaborating with Welch
Allen, a well established lamp manufacturer with the long-term goal of producing
a superior lighting technology for military and civilian applications. SMI
News Release August 29, 2006...Promising startup, BridgeLux, has managed to attract new members to the solid
state lighting (SSL) industry. Despite finding management with extensive experience
and knowledge of electronics and high tech fields, much of the BrideLux management
team is new to the SSL industry. Sunnyvale, California-based power LED supplier,
BridgeLux (formerly eLite Optoelectronics), recently reported adding some very
knowledgeable members to the management team. Dr. Dave Bour, named an Agilent
Fellow in 2000, joined BridgeLux as chief scientist; Optoelectronics industry
verteran, Dr. Ghulam Hasnain, joined the team as senior scientist; Gloria Fan,
formerly with UTStarcom, joined the company as chief financial officer (CFO). Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... Mitsubishi Electric Tops Japanese GaAs Device Makers, Strategy Analytics Says
CompoundSemi News StaffAugust 28, 2006...Strategy Analytics (SA) revealed more details of their latest report about
the GaAs device manufacturers. SA indicated that Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba
surpassed all other Japanese gallium arsenide (GaAs) device manufacturers in
2005. Eudyna Devices, Sony, and NEC fell from the top ten list in 2005, according
to the company. Mitsubishi Electric was the market leader with significant growth
in the MMIC business. At the same time the Mitsubishi Electric led supply of
GaAs power amplifiers to the Japanese 3G handset market. North America had seven
of the top ten GaAs device manufacturers from the usual manufacturers: RF Micro
Devices, Skyworks, and Triquint. SA says that the usual list of GaAs device
manufacturers were joined by fables company, Hittite. Hittite, RF Microdevices
, Skyworks, and Triquint made up 52 percent of the GaAs device market in 2005.
Notably absent from the top-ten list were any European device manufacturers.
"2006 will bring some changes as well. None of the European GaAs device
manufacturers held a top ten position in 2005, yet we expect Filtronic to climb
into this top ten GaAs device manufacturer ranking in 2006," predicted
Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor
Technologies service. "The Asia-Pacific foundries will also maintain
growth in 2006 and 2007. Demand for foundry services in some cases is actually
coming from the traditional GaAs device companies themselves, many of whom are
choosing to outsource excess GaAs device production rather than investing it
in upgrading existing facilities."
"Despite these movements, we believe that North American players will
continue to cement their dominance of the GaAs device market in 2006, since
they supply the majority of GaAs devices to the strategically important handset
market, as well as to other markets utilizing GaAs devices," maintains
Stephen Entwistle, Vice President of the Strategic Technologies Practice at
Strategy Analytics. Strategy
Analytics News Release Evans Analytical Group Acquires Applied Microanalysis LabsAugust 25, 2006...Evans Analytical Group, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California USA, a company
that provide microanalytical surface analysis and materials characterization,
reported that it has acquired Applied Microanalysis Labs, Inc. (AML). AML uses
static and dynamic SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) techniques to analyze
III-V compound semiconductors for the data storage, biomaterial, and semiconductor
industries. The company was founded by Dr. Yumin Gao, a recognized expert in
compound semiconductor analysis.
“Dr. Gao is a recognized world leader in characterization of III-V
semiconductor materials, particularly including GaN-based LED structures,”
said EAG Executive Vice President of Operations, Dr. Mike Edgell. “Dr.
Gao's proven commitment to excellent customer service, combined with high quality
analyses, is an ideal match to the EAG business model, ” Dr. Edgell
continued. “The addition of Dr. Gao and his colleagues to the EAG
team further strengthens our leadership position in the III-V characterization
field, enabling EAG to continue offering improved technical capability and insights
to customers in support of both production control and materials development
activities. SIMS continues to be a powerful technique for providing high sensitivity
quantitative analysis of silicon and compound semiconductor materials. Increased
instrument capacity gained through the acquisition of AML further cements EAG's
position as the industry leader in SIMS-related analytical services."
EAG
News Release SemiSouth Celebrates SiC Manufacturing Facility OpeningAugust 25, 2006...SemiSouth reported that it officially opened its new silicon carbide semiconductor
manufacturing facility in Starkville, Mississippi USA. Additionally the company
said it has completed much of the installation of the manufacturing equipment.
The company held a Grand Opening at the Starkville site. SemiSouth indicated
that II-VI Inc. also opened its SiC wafer processing clean-room within the SemiSouth
Facility. Speaking at the opening ceremonies were U.S. Congressman Chip Pickering
of Mississippi's Third Congressional District; U.S. Congressman Roger Wicker
of Mississippi's First Congressional District, Mississippi State University
President Dr. Robert Foglesong, and Dr. Carl Johnson, CEO of II-VI, Inc. The
ceremonies were lead by Dr. Jeff Casady, President and CEO of SemiSouth Laboratories,
Inc.
"The completion of this facility is a major milestone for both SemiSouth
and the state of Mississippi," said Dr. Casady. "This opening
marks the debut of the first major semiconductor (microchip) manufacturing facility
in the state and provides a solid example of homegrown high tech economic development.
This state-of-the-art facility is a proud example of how federal investment
in University-based research and development, coupled with state support for
high tech job growth, can lead to true high tech economic development in Mississippi.
SemiSouth's success derives from the strong support of our federal, state and
local government leaders and our solid base of private investors. Today's grand
opening ceremony is an opportunity for us to pause and recognize the support
of those individuals who have been instrumental in the company's success."
SemiSouth was co-founded five years ago by two Mississippi State University
(MSU) professors spearheading SiC research and development activities at Mississippi
State University (MSU). Since has received accolades for being such a promising
venture including being named one of the top 5 most promising companies at the
recent Semiconductor Venture Fair and one of the top 50 emerging technology
companies in the USA by Dow Jones / Venture Wire. SemiSouth
News Release SMI Receives Army SBIR Grant to Research Substrate Alternative for Advanced Infrared Sensors
Scott McMahanAugust 25, 2006...Structured Materials Industries (SMI) of Piscataway, New Jersey USA, reports
receiving an Army Phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant to
develop an economical, large area substrate, Mg2Si, for use with an important
infrared detector material known as MCT (HgCdTe, mercury cadmium tellurium).
While MCT (pronounced “mer-cad-tel” by industry insiders) is utilized
in military and civilian applications requiring the highest infrared sensitivities,
the material has no readily available, economical large area substrate. SMI
will attempt to use MOCVD processes to grow Mg2Si, which has a low lattice mismatch
with MCT and can be grown on silicon. The goal of the project is to make a low
cost, large area substrate material for MCT to help improve IR sensing capabilities
of large area systems, improve quality of MCT deposition. In addition, SMI hopes
to lower costs, improve throughput, and increase the percentage of space available
on each substrate for deposition. SMI
News Release.
In October 2003, Siva Sivananthan, president of EPIR Technologies and director
of the Microphysics Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and
inventor of MCT, warned the House Armed Services Committee that while the United
States has the most technologically advanced, night vision, infrared systems,
the USA would not have the most advanced systems for long. The reason, he indicated
is that the USA is entirely dependent upon foreign sources for substrates upon
which the material can be deposited.
"You might be shocked to learn [that] there is not a single supplier
of substrates for molecular-beam epitaxy-grown MCT devices in the United States,"
he told the House Armed Services Committee. "Funding decisions by our
government have resulted in increased and now total reliance on foreign suppliers
for these high-end infrared materials, making us hostage to the current political
and business climates of foreign countries beyond our control. These foreign
governments and businesses either are or may become indifferent to or even hostile
to the security of the American people."
The end of the cold war brought with it a sharp reduction of government funding
for military applications including night vision. In 1988 eight Universities
were developing the technology, but as of 2003, only the University of Illinois
was researching it. And the only MCT compatible substrates had to come from
Japan. (Ref: House
Armed Services Committee Manufacturing and Technology News). The military
is finally taking Sivananthan’s warning to heart in funding the research
at SMI. 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...
BridgeLux Is Ideally Typical of Next Push in Solid State LightingAugust 30, 2006...The solid state lighting (SSL) industry is deeply rooted in the compound semi
(CS) industry. If you haven't been around compound semi circles recently, you
might think that SSL looks like the classic overnight success. Not so. Like
so many of the compounds (GaAs for example), today's and tomorrow's GaN-based
LEDs that are of the caliber truly robust enough to replace incandescents in
general lighting applications are the result of over 20 years of collective
work, rooted heavily in MOCVD, the manufacturing platforms that first came to
light back in the mid-1980s. When hearing about the recent personnel additions
to a USA/Asian company named BridgeLux (ref: Aug.
29 coverage), the significance of those roots came to light. The caliber
of people now being recruited into the still-nascent SSL industry is very
impressive.
BridgeLux (www.bridgelux.com) stands
out as the ideally typical young USA company in the SSL field, full of veteran
expertise. I think of BridgeLux as a leading indicator of the real progress
going on deep inside the SSL industry. If you don't already know BridgeLux,
they're a Northern California-based company that's moving forward especially
quickly right now. The company was first established in 2003 as eLite Optoelectronics
by former Emcore blue spectrum LED expert, Heng Liu who continues to serve as
CTO. Then our longtime friend and colleague, Robert (Bob) Walker, also formerly
from Emcore and the man who has served diligently as our perennial co-chair
for our annual BLUE SSL Suppliers Forum in Taiwan, took over the CEO
reins last year. They've been on a dramatic climb ever since. You can view
bios and pictures of the senior
management team on their website.
BridgeLux obviously knows what it takes to make truly SSL-worthy blue spectrum
LEDs and they're proving high volume capability by already shipping millions
of high-end InGaN LED chips per year into the SSL market out of their manufacturing
facility in Taiwan. They currently have 25 people in residence at the Sunnyvale
headquarters in the USA (i.e. "Silicon Valley), with 15 in Taiwan.
Key people most recently added to the BridgeLux roster include Dave Bour as
Chief Scientist, Gloria Fan as CFO, and Ghulam Hasain as a senior scientist.
They join a cadre of other relative newcomers to the BridgeLux team that includes
MOCVD-expert Jeff Ramer (also formerly of Emcore's R&D Lab) and Steve
Lester, who made quite a name for himself in high power InGaN chip development
while at Agilent (and before that, HP). The collective goal of this especially
strong team is simple... to help enabling the SSL industry by getting the manufacturing
costs of very high yield, truly SSL-worthy blue spectrum LEDs to an affordable and
easily reproducible level.
The addition of Dave Bour as Chief Scientist should contribute significantly to achieving
that goal. Dave's coming back to the compounds after a brief stint at Applied
Materials (AMAT), hopefully bringing with him the silicon mindset that traditionally
enables lower cost manufacturing. Dave, a GaN expert, originally hailed from
Agilent, where he attained the prestigious honor of becoming an Agilent Fellow
in 2000 (as well as being an IEEE Fellow). He's published over 200 articles
and has 60 USA patents to his name. My hunch is that the resulting synergy of
Dave plus Heng Liu, Jeff Ramer, Steve Lester and Ghulam Hasain will be something
worth watching.
Many of us knew Steve Lester from his Agilent days, and others knew him from
the University of Texas at Austin, earning his PhD in 1987. Ghulam
Hasnain was formerly VP of advanced technology with LuxNet and brings over 20
years of experience in optoelectronics and holds several patents. Jeff Ramer
and Heng Liu have strong industry histories, separately working at Emcore developing the original
nitride reactors. To do that, they necessarily had to become superb nitride
growers. Jeff, who helped teach our classic InP
101 video workshop at the 2001 Outlook conference (newly renamed CS Vision
and totally a CS Online Inc. event now), proved at that he's an all-round
compound semi MOCVD expert and a gifted grower. After Jeff went to Veeco with
the sale of Emcore's TurboDisc division to Veeco, he worked on a new
design of the GaN platform to achieve record uniformity for the critical InGaN
active region, which dramatically improved the yield of LED devices.
With the team Bob Walker has now put together, we can expect to see noteworthy
yield improvement out of BridgeLux that will help the entire SSL industry. And
the addition of Gloria Fan basically represents the caliber of person we really
want to attract to the SSL industry. She brings over 15 years management experience
to BridgeLux, having served as VP of finance at UTStarcom, most recently serving
as their VP of global business operations where she oversaw the company's IPO
soon after that company scored the title of one of Business Week's 100
hot growth companies in 2002.
Why do I feel BridgeLux to be ideally typical of what's going on right now?
Because they've either attracted especially talented people new to the SSL field,
or they've enticed re-entries who originally made their mark in blue spectrum
R&D. And that's the kind of talent it will take to get the manufacturing
costs down where they need to be. The pattern is very much like what we've seen
over the years at Cree: employing the best people in the field and concentrating
on lowering costs and increasing yields. My hunch is that will require a more
silicon-like manufacturing mindset to get there, which could explain why silicon
pros are being attracted to the compound semi industry each day, especially
as things stay rather tight in the overall tech sector. The prospects of being
on the groundfloor of seeing InGaN LEDs take over first, compact florescents,
then halogens, and eventually incandescent lighting applications, is the obvious
lure.
Where BridgeLux goes, the SSL industry is likely to follow, and that directly
benefits many throughout the CS supply chain. And we can't forget one other
addition to the BridgeLux team, my friend Anita Draa, who served with Bob Walker
when he ran Emcore's Pacific Rim sales team. Anita's now helping with BridgeLux
marketing and herself holds a Ph.D. in chemistry. Now that's my kind of "Marcom"
(marketing communication) expert! She understands all levels of the challenge.
A lot of those MOCVD platforms out there were originally sold by Bob and Anita.
And many more were perfected by the steady and excellent work of Jeff Ramer
and Heng Liu. As to what's specifically going on behind the scenes at BridgeLux,
and why they're able to attract such high caliber people, all I can say is...
Stay Tuned.
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... |
