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September 27, 2006...RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), a Greensboro, North Carolina USA, company that
makes radio subsytems for wireless applications, reports that it expects to
sell its equity interest in Jazz Semiconductor. RFMD says its decision to sell
is the result of the pending merger of Jazz Semiconductor with a wholly own
subsidiary of Acquicor Technology, Inc. RFMD plans to sell its stake in Jazz
Semiconductor to Acquicor for $25 to $27 million. Prior to the announced merger
RFMD valued its Jazz Semiconductor investment at about $60 million. According
to RFMD, Acquicor is a company formed by Gilbert F. Amelio, Ph.D., Ellen M.
Hancock and Steve Wozniak. The purpose of Acquicor has been to acquire one or
more operating businesses in the technology, multimedia and networking sectors.
Shu Li, president and CEO of Jazz Semiconductor, stated, "Jazz Semiconductor
has enjoyed an exceptional relationship with RFMD. We look forward to the continued
evolution of this relationship as RFMD launches new highly integrated mixed
signal products built on Jazz silicon and as we continue our development efforts
in advanced RF silicon semiconductor processes."
Bill Pratt, co-founder and chief technical officer of RFMD, stated, "RFMD
and Jazz have worked together since 2002 developing state-of-the-art silicon
process technologies targeted for next-generation mobile devices. RFMD's next-generation
single-chip EDGE transceiver, which we expect will ramp at Jazz in the first
half of calendar year 2007, utilizes a specialized CMOS process jointly developed
between the two companies. Additionally, our existing agreements with Jazz regarding
supply, wafer credits and joint development activities remain intact, and we
expect to continue a mutually beneficial partnership following the merger.”
RFMD
News Release Teledyne Technologies Completes Acquisition of Rockwell Scientific
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 25, 2006...Teledyne Technologies Inc. reports that it has completed acquisition of Rockwell
Scientific Company LLC for $167.5 million in cash with the sellers retaining
certain liabilities. Rockwell Scientific is a developer and maker of infrared
and visible light imaging sensors for surveillance applications. Additionally
Rockwell Scientific offers high volume custom foundry services in compound semiconductors
including: GaN and InP. Rockwell said it also offers moderate volume customization
in GaAs, InP, GaN, and InAs devices.
Teledyne Technologies is a provider of electronic communication components,
and monitoring and control systems for a wide variety of applications including
aircraft communications and defense electronics. Not surprisingly Rockwell Scientific’s
surveillance applications are perfect for the military. The acquisition adds
to Teledyne’s mid-August acquisitions, CollaborX and a majority stake
in Ocean Design. Both CollaborX and Ocean Design get much of their funding from
military applications.
Rockwell Scientific was owned equally by Rockwell Automation Inc. and Rockwell
Collins Inc. According to Teledyne, the company will now operate under the names
Teledyne Scientific Company and Teledyne Imaging Sensors. Teledyne says it borrowed
funds to acquire Rockwell Scientific which had revenues of $114 million during
the fiscal year ending September 30. The borrowing was done under Teledyne’s
$400 million credit facility. Company
News Release
In mid-August, Teledyne completed the acquisition of CollarborX, Inc. for $17.5
million. At the same time the company completed the acquisition of the majority
stake in Ocean Design for about $30 million. CollaborX of Colorado Springs,
Colorado USA, with revenues of about $13.6 million for fiscal year ending in
December 2005, mainly provided government engineering services for the US Air
Force, and other military commands including: the Missile Defense Agency, the
United States Joint Forces Command, and the United States Northern Command.
Ocean Design Inc. of Daytona, Florida USA, makes undersea, wet-mateable electrical
and fiber-optic interconnect systems for offshore oil and gas production, oceanographic
research, and military applications. According to Teledyne, stockholders of
Ocean Design, Inc. can require Teledyne Instruments to purchase their shares
on a quarterly basis, and all shares not sold to Teledyne Instruments following
the quarter ended March 31, 2009, will be purchased by Teledyne Instruments
following the quarter ended June 30, 2009. Company
News Release Bookham to Receive $9.5 Million From Sale of UK Assembly and Test Facility
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 25, 2006...As part of the company’s capital raising efforts, Bookham announced that
it has signed an agreement for the sale of its Paignton, UK, assembly and test
facility. The company expects to receive $9.5 million on closing in mid-November.
In March the company signed an agreement with Scarborough Development for the
sale and long-term leaseback of its Caswell, UK facility. Bookham made about
$24 million in that transaction. Dr. Giorgio Anania said at the time that the
company had raised a total of about $101 million from a public stock offering
and sale of various assets including the Caswell facility leaseback. The latest
facility sale is not the only property in the UK that Bookham decided to get
rid of. In September of 2005 Bookham completed the sale of vacant land in Wiltshire,
United Kingdom to Abbeymeads LLP for $15.5 million. (Ref: Sept
2005 Coverage).
Dr. Giorgio Anania, president and CEO of Bookham Inc. commented, “With
this latest transaction we will have raised approximately $41 million from the
recent private placement of common stock and the sale of our Paignton facility.”
He added, “We now have a much stronger balance sheet, which we plan
to leverage to better address our growing markets.” Company
News Release. The capital will likely help finance the company’s plans
announced in August to transfer its laser prototype line and related engineering
support to its Shenzhen, China Facility. Those plans also included starting
production of its chip-on-carrier line at its Shenzhen facility. (Ref: August
Coverage). Sensors Unlimited Introduces High-Speed SWIR CameraSeptember 26, 2006...Sensors Unlimited, Goodrich Corporation has introduced an indium gallium arsenide
high resolution shortwave infrared (SWIR) camera, the SU640SDWH-1.7RT. The company
says that its high speed is unprecedented. The camera comes with a new 640 x
512 pixel focal plane array (FPA) on a 25 micron pitch. It boasts the ability
to capture full-size images at 109 frames per second (fps) or it can image a
smaller region of interest at over 15,000 fps with a 100 percent fill factor.
According to the company, the all-solid-state InGaAs camera features room temperature
FPA operation. It has a single 14-bit digital Camera Link compatible output
and a simultaneous analog video NTSC output. Serial commands allow complete
control over the ROI window size, position and integration time. The camera
also has on-board non-uniformity corrections and anti-blooming protection. According
to the company, user programmable exposure times and external triggering of
full frame or ROI acquisition allow users to capture pulsed or high speed events
in low-light conditions. The company indicated that the camera can be used for
machine vision, pulsed laser beam profiling, high-speed motion analysis, thermal
imaging of combustion or rocket plumes, free-space communications lasers or
guide star alignment, high-speed semiconductor inspection, optical switch monitoring,
hyperspectral imaging, and other real-time, image-tracking tasks. Company
News Release Semtech Debuts Buck Power Converters for Handsets
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 26, 2006...Semtech has debuted a line of DC/DC step-down (buck) power converters for providing
adaptive power control of CDMA and WCDMA handsets. Semtech pointed out that
CDMA and WCDMA handsets have wide variation in power consumption based on a
phone’s distance from a base station. For this reason, the SC250 and SC251
adaptively control the DC power supply and thereby make the phone more efficient.
The SC250 uses a buck conversion to generate an output voltage, which is linearly
proportional to an analog input control voltage from the baseband processor.
When the PA outputs low power, the buck conversion process reduces battery current.
This greatly increases talk time compared to directly connecting the PA to the
battery. Company
News Release Avago Wins Growth Award; Introduces Bright Oval LEDs
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 20, 2006...Avago Technologies announced it was awarded Frost and Sullivan’s 2006
North American Optoelectronic Components Growth Excellence Award. The award
was given to the San Jose-based company for implementing and sustaining growth
in a saturated manufacturing market. The criteria for the award included: utilizing
a unique sales strategy to increase market share and revenue; creating truly
innovative products, and successfully managing an existing product portfolio.
Frost & Sullivan Analyst Hemendhira M noted, "By adopting structured
strategies and commercializing highly sophisticated products, the company has
been recognized as a one-stop shop that offers a diverse range of product lines
tailored to suit varying applications. The company fulfills the immediate requirements
of its diverse customers who arrive from enterprise networking, wired and wireless
communication, computer peripherals, industrial, and automotive markets."
Company
News Release
In other company news, Avago introduced bright oval shaped LEDs for outdoor
electronic sign and signal applications. The company says that the through-hole
RGB lamps are ideal for stadium scoreboards, display advertising and variable
message signs. Avago noted that the HLMP-xx61 series of oval shaped LED lamps
can also be used in outdoor video displays. Company
News Release Arima Optoelectronics Gets Aixtron System for AlGaInP LED Capacity Increase
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 20, 2006...Aixtron, an MOCVD systems maker in Aachen, Germany, reported that Arima Optoelectronics
Corporation of Taiwan ordered three of the AIX 2600G3 Aixtron Planetary Reactor
systems. According to Aixtron, Arima will use the systems to mass produce AlGaInP
LEDs at its facilities in Dashi and Houko, Taiwan. Arima, which already has
multiple Aixtron Planetary Reactor systems for high volume production has added
the three 49x2” wafer capacity systems to its production capacity.
Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... EERC Develops Silicon Carbide Materials to be Tested on International Space Station
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 20, 2006...The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), a non-profit branch
of the University of North Dakota, reported that it has delivered a series of
unique materials to be tested by NASA (the National Aeronotics and Space Administration)
on the International Space Station. The materials are primarily comprised of
the hard ceramic (and incidentally a compound semiconductor), silicon carbide.
According to the EERC, the SiC structures can withstand temperatures of 1450
degrees Celsius or more. EERC contends that this is a higher maximum temperature
than other commercial silicon carbide materials made in a similar manner can
withstand.
In addition, the organization In addition, the organization, which focuses on development, demonstration, and commercialization, says that while other ceramics tend to shatter
upon impact by an object, their material is porous and can therefore allow the
integration of other materials to make a more shatter resistant structure. The
EERC says this particularly useful for aerobraking and protection from meteoroid
penetration. The EERC in said the material is expected to complete about 2900
orbits and travel about 75 million miles around the Earth. Other possible applications
the EERC identified for the material include heat exchanger tubing, burner nozzles,
turbine blades, and very high-temperature mechanical fasteners such as nuts
and bolts.
"Because of their potential use on spacecraft, we will expose small
sections of the materials to low-earth orbit during the Materials International
Space Station Experiment 6 (MISSE-6) mission," said John Hurley, EERC
Senior Research Advisor and material inventor. "Four separate pieces
of the material structures will be installed on each side of the space station
for 4 to 6 months and undergo exposure to severe ultraviolet radiation and monoatomic
oxygen," said Hurley. EERC engineers also envision more earthbound,
lower-temperature applications such as using it for tough, dent-resistant coatings
in power and industrial applications such as grinding and cutting of hard materials
and in high-impact scenarios such as lightweight bullet-proof armor. EERC
News Release Bridgelux Responds to Lawsuit by Cree
LIGHTimes StaffSeptember 19, 2006...Bridgelux confirmed that the company was served a lawsuit filed by Cree Inc.
and Boston University on September 12, 2006 (Ref: Coverage),
alleging infringement of US Patent numbers 6,657,236
and 5,686,738. “We believe in the importance
of respecting the intellectual property rights of others, just as we expect
that others will respect our rights,” said Dr. Robert C. Walker,
CEO of BridgeLux. “However, we also believe this lawsuit to be without
merit, and we will vigorously defend against the claims that have been brought.”
Bridgelux
News Release Aixtron, Osram, Philips, BASF, and Applied Materials to Collaborate on OLED Project
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 19, 2006...Aixtron, Osram, Philips, BASF, and Applied Materials are reportedly participating
in a research and development project called OPAL 2008 (Organic Phosphorescent
lights for Applications in the Lighting market 2008). The project has set the
goal of achieving a few Euro cents per cm2 for high performance white OLEDs.
Aixtron’s part in the project will be to improve production capabilities
of the organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD) process by designing equipment
for large area deposition of OLED devices. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... SMI Receives Phase I SBIR Grant to Devise Anti-Tamper Technology
CompoundSemi News StaffSeptember 18, 2006...Structured Materials Industries (SMI) reports that in July the company received
yet another Phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant. This grant
was to develop a self-powered anti-tamper device. SMI said it will work with
a major defense contractor to design and demonstrate the technology in devices
that can be used in the field. According to SMI the technology is based on release
of controllable amounts of heat in multi-layered thin films of metal/metal oxide.
SMI said it would first demonstrate the technology in memory devices. Among
the possible applications for the self-powered anti-tamper device are in military
and civilian hardware security, and data storage for safe guarding personal
and financial data. Company
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