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September 6, 2006...Bandwidth Semiconductor LLC, Spire’s subsidiary in Bedford, Massachusetts
USA, reports signing a manfacturing agreement with Principia Lightworks Inc.
to be Principia’s exclusive supplier of III-V and II-VI wafers for the
next five years. Principia of Woodland Hills, California USA, plans to use the
wafers to begin volume production of its patented electron beam pumped vertical
cavity surface emitting laser (eVCSEL). The (eVCSEL) is used as a light source
for projection display applications such as rear-projection television (RPTV).
According to Bandwidth full production of the wafers is expected to start in
mid 2007. Bandwidth said it will begin to scale-up its MOCVD and related processing
facilities, and it will commit capital resources to complete the scale up. Bandwidth
anticipates revenues of over $16 million during the first three years of the
agreement. This includes revenues from wafer production and nonrecurring engineering
and facility access payments.
Mr. Don Klein, Executive Vice President of Business Development for Principia,
said, "After evaluating a number of potential suppliers, we chose Bandwidth
because of their broad range of MOCVD and compound semiconductor device experience.
Once in production, Principia will offer the projection display market the first
truly high powered, low cost, red, green, and blue laser light source. The agreement
with Bandwidth will allow us to meet the high volume demand from RPTV manufacturers."
Bandwidth
Semiconductor News Release Cree Recruits Cirrus Logic CFO as VP and CFO
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 6, 2006...Cree Inc., a maker of LEDs, power switching components, and RF devices, reported
that the company has hired John T. Kurtzweil as executive vice president and
CFO. Mr. Kurtzweil formerly served as CFO at Cirrus Logic Inc., a supplier of
analog, mixed- signal, and digital processing solutions. Immediately prior to
joining Cirrus Logic, Kurtzweil had served as interim CFO for Quepasa Corporation,
an online company serving the growing US Hispanic community. He also served
as senior vice president and CFO of ON Semiconductor, a global supplier of power-
and data-management semiconductors and standard semiconductor components.
Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and chief executive officer commented, "John
brings with him a unique combination of financial expertise and experience in
both large and small technology companies, strong relationships with the investment
community and knowledge of the semiconductor business. I look forward to working
with him to build on Cree's success and to help lead the company through the
next stage of growth." Cree
News Release
Court Approves Three-Five System's Plan for Chapter 11 Reorganization
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 6, 2006...Three-Five Systems of Phoenix, Arizona USA, reported receiving court approval
of its plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The bankruptcy
court entered an order confirming the company’s plan on August 30, 2006.
According to Three-Five Systems, the bankruptcy court approved a comprehensive
settlement agreement between the Company, its subsidiary TFS Electronic Manufacturing
Systems, Inc. ("EMS"), the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
in the bankruptcy case of EMS, and CGSNW-Willows, LLC, the primary landlord
for EMS. The company said it expects the plan to go into effect on September
11. At that time, the board of directors of the company consisting of Lyron
Bentovim (a current board member), G. Grant Lyon, Peter S. Davis, Robert Nahom,
and David Buchanan. Messrs will begin to wind down company operations. Company
News Release SemiSouth Raises $5 Million in Series A1 Financing After SiC Plant Opening
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 1, 2006...SemiSouth of Starkville, Mississippi USA, reports raising $5 million in Series
A1 venture capital financing. The financing was led by Southern Farm Bureau
Life Insurance Company of Jackson, Mississippi. According to the company, the
financing will be held in two stages over the next three months. New investors
in this round of financing included several Mississippi-based institutions such
as: Starkville Technology Investments, LLC led by Frank Brumfield (a graduate
of Mississippi State University); Mississippi Angel Fund of Jackson, Mississippi; Gulf
South Capital of Jackson, Mississippi; and Schneider Electric Ventures of Paris, France.
Delta Capital Management (Memphis, Tennessee) and Southern Appalachian Fund
(Knoxville, Tennessee) participated in the new financing. Both companies also
participated in the previous Series A financing round that SemiSouth secured
in June 2005.
Mississippi Governor, Haley Babour was on hand for the funding announcement
Friday at the new silicon carbide production facility for which the company
held a Grand Opening earlier in the week. (Ref: Aug 25 Coverage). "SemiSouth is an exciting high-tech
success story," said Governor Barbour. "It's also a case of Mississippi
State University being an economic development engine not only for the Starkville
area but also for the entire state. Companies like SemiSouth are why it was
so important to pass the Momentum Mississippi legislation to realign our development
incentives with the new realities of the economy that emphasize brain power
over strong backs." He added, "Our universities are economic development gold
mines and we are beginning to do a better job of mining them for high-skilled,
higher-paying new jobs." SiC has numerous applications.
The most promising application is utilizing it in high power electronic parts and
components because of its extremely high thermal conductivity. SemiSouth
News Release Tegal Receives Repeat Orders From Japan
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 1, 2006...Tegal of San Jose, California USA, reports receiving repeat orders for its
Tegal 900 plasma etch systems from two leading Japanese companies. Tegal is
a designer and manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems for use in
the production of integrated circuits and nanotechnology devices. "We are
pleased to receive continuing repeat orders for our workhorse etch systems from
our Japanese customers," said Thomas Mika, President and CEO of Tegal.
"Our long-term presence in Japan and a committed local sales and service
team has helped us compete effectively against other suppliers, including several
Japan-based companies. By leveraging our success in Japan, we are in the process
of revamping our sales and service operations in the rest of Asia, a region
that accounts for over 60% of the global semiconductor capital equipment billings.
We look forward to helping our customers around the world ramp production to
meet the current upturn in specialized semiconductor device fabrication."
According to the company the Tegal 900 series etch tool features an RF diode
plasma source optimized for the etching of a variety of films. The device also
boasts the industry's lowest cost of ownership. The company says that the flexible,
automated wafer handling system has a compact footprint, and it utilizes broad
portfolio of processes enabling use in multiple sectors including: Silicon CMOS,
Integrated Passives, MEMS devices and Thin-Film Head manufacturing. The company
indicated that Tegal 900 has the latest in automated control systems (ACS) and
modern factory communication protocol for automated fabs. Tegal says the device
has a proven transport system that can accommodate 75 mm to 200 mm round, square
or rectangular substrates. Company
News Release Emcore Sells 49% GELcore Stake to GE; Names Nichia as GE's Strategic Partner
Jo Ann McDonald, founding editorAugust 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... Formosa Epitaxy to Open Plant for MOCVD Development and LED Production
LIGHTimes StaffAugust 31, 2006...Formosa Epitaxy, an MOCVD developer and LED chip maker, plans to open a new
facility at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP), Digitimes reported. In
the article
the STSP administration indicated that the facility operation will focus on
MOCVD and LED chips including gallium nitride-based LED chips. The facility
at STSP will be a wholly owned subsidiary, and the company intends to use it
to meet the demand of Southern Taiwan. According to the article, the company
has not finalized the schedule for construction and its production capacity. 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 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 Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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