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August 31, 2006...Breaking News... Speculation on "the street" earlier this
week has been confirmed. General Electric Company (GE) has purchased Emcore's
49% of the GE/Emcore joint venture (JV), GELcore LLC of Cleveland, Ohio USA
for $100 million. Concurrently, GE's Consumer & Industrial business unit
inked a strategic alliance agreement with Nichia Corporation of Japan that this
editor believes will result in Nichia's blue spectrum LED and phosphor technology
expertise becoming the primary base technology ultimately fielded by GELcore
into the budding solid state lighting (SSL) industry. (Ref:
GE news release) The move now elevates GE to relatively equal ranks
with its two major lighting company giant competitors, Osram of Germany, (which
has always owned 100% of Osram Opto) and Royal Philips of the Netherlands, (which
purchased all of Lumileds Lighting in San Jose last November. Ref:
our coverage). Lumileds, now officially named Philips Lumileds, was
originally a JV in which Philips and Agilent each owned equal shares. Osram
Opto and Lumileds are blue spectrum (which includes white) LED chip makers,
whereas GELcore has always purchased its starting LEDs from the outside, from
various vendors. While some may call this announcement evidence of industry
"consolidation," I see it as the lighting giants finally flexing their
collective muscle, which spells nothing but good news for the entire SSL industry.
The founding head of GELcore in 1999 and then CEO of GE, Jack Welch,
conceived of GELcore; Michael B. Petras, Jr. was named head of the JV. Michael
is now VP for GE's electrical distribution and lighting. According to Michael,
who has long been known to the compound semi community for his personal enthusiasm
and strong support of solid state lighting, commented that "This agreement
is a true win-win outcome for both parties and clearly demonstrates GE's commitment
to solid state lighting technology. GE and Nichia's combined excellence creates
a preeminent alliance that is ideally suited to support GELcore's efforts to
accelerate the growth and penetration of LED-based lighting solutions in the
$12 billion global lighting segment." Commenting on Nichia's stepped-up
involvement with GE, Noboru Tazaki, executive VP and COO of Nichia added that,
"This is a historic agreement when you consider that GE, a world leader
in traditional lighting technology and LED systems and Nichia, a world leader
in phosphor and optoelectronics technology are joining forces to advance LED
technology and accelerate the penetration of LEDs into the general lighting
industry." In the days ahead, I'll extend our coverage of this story
in my next McDonald Report, adding opinions from various interested parties,
but having personally been involved in the original conception of GELcore, I
add the following initial perspective for our 2nd page LIGHTimes subscribers: Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... 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 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 Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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