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Editorial: The Role of Compound Semiconductors in Tomorrow's Consumer Lives and Economy
... This week we present a guest editorial by Nisa Khan who is best recognized in the compound semi industry for her pioneering work on 40 Gb/s InP modulators and switches at Bell Laboratories, which she continued on at JDSU and at her own startup Atrium Networks. With her recent...
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January 9, 2007...Veeco Instruments Inc., has introduced its new TurboDisc "K-series"
metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) gallium nitride (GaN) platform
for the production of high-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs). The company reports that
it received orders totaling $10 million for five new systems from three leading
HB-LED manufacturers. Veeco's new TurboDisc "K-series" MOCVD platform
includes the K300 and K465 models. According to Veeco, they offer a modular,
upgradeable path to higher throughput, larger diameter reactor chamber, and
reduced cost of ownership. Veeco contends that the K 465 has 50 percent greater
throughput than any competitive MOCVD production tool on the market. Veeco says
that both reactors offer volume production of GaN-based blue and green LEDs
and blue laser diodes.
Piero Sferlazzo, Vice President, General Manager of Veeco's MOCVD operations,
said, "Our new modular system, which is extendable to larger reactors,
is the only platform capable of continuous operation available on the market
today.”
Edward H. Braun, Chairman and CEO of Veeco, commented, "Veeco's new
multi-generational platform and larger reactor capability will give our HB-LED
customers a long-term cost of ownership advantage plus the technology to achieve
their LED brightness roadmap objectives.” Braun added, “We
continue to anticipate strong Veeco growth in this market as HB-LED's experience
adoption in applications such as automotive, architectural lighting and backlighting
for laptops and LCD-TVs. Veeco will continue to partner with our customers to
deliver innovative technology solutions and world-class process and applications
support as the industry advances towards solid state lighting." Company
News Release Lockheed Martin Demonstrates Solid State Radar Antenna
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 9, 2007...Lockheed Martin reports that it has completed a successful demonstration of
its solid state radar antenae with open architecture software. Lockheed Martin
(Lockheed) says it was able to display live tracks with its internally developed
Scalable Solid-State S-band Radar (S4R) Engineering Development Model (EDM).
According to Lockheed, the live tracks demonstrate the company’s proven
approach to an active antenna-based radar system designed with commercial hardware
and open architecture software. The S4R EDM system, developed using silicon
carbide (SiC)-based high-power transmit and receive (T/R) modules, is an electronically
steered radar system, which can support air surveillance, cruise missile defense,
ballistic missile defense, counter target acquisition, and littoral
operations.
The company points out that SiC provides greater power than other commonly
used materials due to its increased heat tolerance. With more power, the radar
has longer range and provides more precise target discrimination. Lockheed derived
the proven design of from the S-band antenna developed for the U.S. Navy's Volume
Search Radar on the DDG-1000 next-generation destroyer. Lockheed indicated that
the transmit/receive modules, the most critical components of a solid state
antenna, serve as multiple function circuits that generate and transmit signal
power over the full face of the radar, receive the reflected radar signal, amplify
it for processing, and electronically steer the radio frequency beams in space.
Company
News Release SatCon Receives UL1741 Approval for its GFDI System
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 9, 2007...SatCon Technology reports receiving UL1741 approval for its ground fault detection
interruptor (GFDI) for commercial photovoltaic inverters. According to SatCon,
the purpose of the GFDI is to detect low levels of ground currents and interrupt
any faults within specified limits. SatCon has developed and installed GFDI
for its photovoltaic systems well before the electrical protection system becomes
mandatory for photovoltaic that interconnect with electrical power systems under
UL1741 by May 7, 2007. SatCon says PowerLight Corporation is the first to install
its new GFDI device.
The UL1741 standard from Underwriters Laboratory is the electrical engineering
standard to safely convert DC photovoltaic power into AC power. While other
companies have made solar inverters that comply with previous versions of the
UL1741 standard, SatCon contends it is the first to offer a solar inverter that
complies with the latest soon-to-be mandatory UL1741 standard. SatCon
News Release Fairchild Plans Appeal of China Court Ruling
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 8, 2007...Power electronics company, Fairchild Semiconductor, reports that it plans to
appeal the court ruling in China in favor of Zhongxing Telecom Ltd. (ZTE). The
Intermediate People's Court of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, People's Republic
of China ordered Fairchild to pay RMB65,733,478 (approximately $8.4 million
at current exchange rates) to ZTE for damages in the product liability lawsuit.
Fairchild Semiconductor maintains that the product liability claims are invalid.
Fairchild says it will appeal to the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province.
According to Fairchild, the lawsuit relates to alleged defects in products
shipped in late 2002 and early 2003. Fairchild says it did not sell the allegedly
defective products to ZTE directly. Among other defenses, Fairchild has argued
that limitations on damages in its contract with its distributor at the time
of shipment should limit any damages recovered by ZTE. Fairchild expects to
record a charge of approximately $8.2 million in the fourth quarter 2006 related
to the legal proceeding. Fairchild
News Release JDSU to Acquire CasabyteJanuary 4, 2007...Test and Measurement company, JDSU of Milpitas, California USA, announced an
agreement to purchase Casabyte Inc., which provides quality of service test
solutions for mobile network operators. According to JDSU, acquiring Casabyte
will help fulfill the need to deliver quality of service (QoS) test solutions
required for delivering bandwidth-intensive multimedia content over converged
fixed-mobile networks. JDSU says that Casabyte will be integrated with its Communications
Test and Measurements division which offers service assurance solutions to telecommunication
and cable network operators around the world. JDSU explained that service assurance
solutions enable network operators to identify, troubleshoot and prevent network
degradation that can impair voice, data, video and mobile service quality.
JDSU expects to complete the acquisition of Casabyte in the current fiscal
third quarter ending March 31, 2007. Financial terms of the transaction were
not disclosed. "In a fiercely competitive market, the simple expansion
of services alone will not enable service and content providers to meet their
business objectives," said John Read, president of Casabyte. "Quality
of service is a key success factor, and we will continue to help our customers
achieve their QoS goals as a part of the JDSU family." JDSU
News Release Solar Thin Films to Collaborate With Renewable Energy Solutions
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 4, 2007...Solar Thin Films (STF) of Budapest, Hungary reports that it has entered into
a three-year agreement with Renewable Energy Solutions Inc. (RESI) to develop
manufacturing equipment for copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS)-based thin
film photo voltaic modules. STF estimates that about 90 percent of the modules delivered
worldwide in 2005 used crystalline and polycrystalline silicon PV technology. For this
reason, the company says that the PV industry has recently experienced a shortage
of electronic grade silicon used in the crystalline silicon PV modules. Now
STF along with many of the major crystalline silicon PV module suppliers have
begun work in thin film-based photovoltaic materials because of both their efficiency
advantages and the fact that they are not affected by crystalline silicon shortages.
At the same time, STF is participating with RESI in providing a contract
proposal responding to the Solar America Initiative (SAI) for the optimization
of the CIGS technology presently held by RESI. The main US governmental and
university institutions, NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratories), IEC
(Institute of Energy Conversion), and PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory),
have also participated in this proposal. The proposal reportedly covers a three-year optimization
of the CIGS technology now existing at RESI. "With this R&D contract
with RESI, STF plans to introduce module manufacturing equipment to produce
the next generation that will be more efficient and lower cost thin film CIGS-based
PV modules on a glass substrate," commented Csaba Toro, the CEO of STF.
STF says its goal is to begin selling the CIGS manufacturing equipment during the 2007 fiscal year. Ultimately STF says it wants to become a world leader in providing
turnkey facilities for CIGS-based thin film PV modules. Dr. Zoltan Kiss, a director,
consultant and significant shareholder of STF, is also a shareholder, director
and chief technical officer. Solar
Thin Films News Release Warner Bros. and LG Electronics Choose Neutrality in DVD Format War
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 5, 2007...For consumers and an industry that can’t decide which new DVD format
to back, movie studio, Warner Bros. has chosen to back both, according to an
article
by the Associated Press. The company, a unit of Time Warner Inc., has taken
the additional step of creating a single DVD it has dubbed the “Total
HD Disc” with both the HD DVD format created by Toshiba and the Blu-ray
format developed by Sony. Warner Bros. is not alone in choosing neutrality in
the DVD format war, Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., has chosen to
release movies in both formats. LG Electronics of South Korea also announced
it will soon introduce what one might call a “neutral” DVD player,
which can play both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. LG
Electronics News Release.
However, the format war is far from over with movie studios and consumer electronics
makers taking sides. With either choice, the compound semiconductor industry
wins because both formats require blue laser diodes made of gallium nitride.
Twentieth Century Fox, which is owned by News Corp, and Walt Disney Co. have
staunchly supported the Blu-ray format. Universal Studios is perhaps the only
major studio thus far to choose to release movies only in the HD DVD format.
Consumer electronics giants, Toshiba, and Panasonic have will make players and
recorders only in the HD DVD format. The only critical team not yet taking sides
is the group of consumers. So far few have chosen one or the other, and instead
have chosen to wait until the issue is resolved to make the necessary investment
for a player and or recorder and all new format movies. Skyworks Purchases Tegal Etch System
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 2, 2007...Skyworks Solutions Inc., has ordered a Tegal 6500 Advanced Etch System for
the development and production of advanced wireless devices. Tegal says the
the system will be shipped to Skyworks’ fabrication facility in Southern
California. Tegal indicated that the system will be used to etch silicon nitride
(SiN) and other critical thin films on gallium arsenide (GaAs) substrates. The
devices produced with the new system will reportedly be incorporated into a
variety of wireless handset, automotive, broadband, cellular infrastructure,
industrial, and medical applications.
Tegal describes the 6500 etch system as a high-vacuum etch cluster tool and
is used in production fabs to etch multiple thin films in an extremely clean
process environment. The films produced with the device are widely used in compound
semiconductor & opto-electronics, non-volatile memory, analog & power
devices and MEMS devices, Tegal says. Tegal
News Release PowerDsine Shareholders Approve Acquisition by Microsemi
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 2, 2007...PowerDsine, a provider of power over Ethernet based in Israel, reported that
company shareholders have approved the company’s acquisition by power
electronics company, Microsemi Corporation. Microsemi, PowerDsine, and Pinnacle
Acquisition Corporation signed the acquisition agreement on October 24, 2006.
Under the agreement PowerDsine will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsemi.
The close of the transaction is subject to several conditions including the
approval of the Tel-Aviv District Court. PowerDsine
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...
The Role of Compound Semiconductors in Tomorrow's Consumer Lives and Economy
M. Nisa Khan, Ph.D.January 9, 2007...This week we present a guest editorial by Nisa Khan who is best recognized
in the compound semi industry for her pioneering work on 40 Gb/s InP modulators
and switches at Bell Laboratories, which she continued on at JDSU and at her
own startup Atrium Networks. With her recent Wall Street finance experience
in managing assets at American Express, she is now following her true passion
- contributing to technology leadership with a unique combination of technical
and financial background.
Despite the cyclical nature of most economies, compound semiconductor products
and technologies have continued to uniquely empower our lives and businesses
for the past few decades. The impact of compound semiconductor-based products
will be even more enormous in the future as the global economy takes new and
powerful shape while the populous and developing countries like India, China,
Brazil and others rapidly expand their economies. The unique characteristics
of compound semiconductors enable us to produce ultra high-speed and high-power
electronic and optoelectronic components with shrinking chip sizes and higher
efficiencies, which no other materials have been known to match. I feel that
further advancements in the CS technologies, along with the market need for
information transport, information processing or computer-like gadgets, as well
as efficient power, lighting and energy utilization by government, businesses,
and consumers will drive the CS market to gigantic levels in the next several
years. Consumer education and awareness, as well as industry partnership and
cross collaboration for compound semiconductors, is now more crucial than ever
for improving both people's lives and the global economies.
The role of compound semiconductors first became prominent as the march-off
of the information age in the late 90's was aided by several compound semiconductor
technologies for crucial and high-end applications, such as telecom lasers and
photodetectors, and high-speed amplifiers for telecom and wireless equipment.
Meanwhile, the consumer products and applications that use compound semiconductors
have broadened vastly and are now enjoying a multi-billion dollar market. Some
of these products include various playstations, handheld computers, wireless
phones, DVD/CD players, and others. Currently the CS technology that is considered
the most disruptive is that of Solid State Lighting (SSL) devices that
use light emitting diodes (LEDs) for display and lighting, a CS technology that
is expected to be widely used for general lighting in the future. These specific
electronic and optoelectronic devices are a result of the unique bandgap characteristics
of compound semiconductors leading to carrier generation and transport that
were realized by scientists several decades ago. Although CS technologies have
undergone numerous challenges and will still be overcoming many challenges to
lower the cost of products while making them more efficient, it is now ever
more clear that LEDs and modern consumer high-end gadgets will take the market
for CS to grand new heights in the foreseeable future.
In general, high-performance compound semi electronic technology sectors
face significantly lower challenges in the marketplace at present, compared
to the high-performance compound semi optoelectronic technology sectors.
This is primarily due to the fact that CS electronic technologies are more mature
and often have fewer fundamental physics challenges compared to their optoelectronic
counterpart. Since the CS-based consumer electronic market is currently much
broader and better known, I wish to focus on the role of CS optoelectronics
in tomorrow's consumer lives and economy, because I feel we need to better understand,
and thus, better prepare for the ensuing impact. The major consumer applications
for CS optoelectronics will obviously come from LEDs.
The various LED technologies for wide-usage consumer applications remain
under development to improve cost, quality, and high-volume manufacturability.
Major companies such as: Philips, GE, Toyota, and others currently have extensive LED development programs underway for deployment in general lighting markets,
automotive lighting and display, LCD TV backlighting, traffic signals, mobile
phone flashes, and various public and business place lightings. The potential
advantages of replacing the current lighting technologies in these areas include:
longer lifetime, lower energy consumption, low temperature operation, fast on/off
response times, low heat generation, higher reliability (higher shock and vibration
tolerances), and ultimately lower maintenance costs and overall cost savings.
The biggest and potentially most important of these advantages may be that significant
energy cost savings can be anticipated by consumers, government, and businesses,
which is crucial as we all recognize the global energy consumption challenge
for years to come.
Although currently limited, LEDs have already captured applaudable marketshare,
totaling over $3 billion for consumers and businesses. These markets include,
for example, lighting in refrigerator cases and signs in Wal-Mart stores, automotive
headlights, display lighting in mobile handsets, and traffic lights. While various
color such as red, blue, blue-green, and yellow-LEDs have been developed for
some time, the white-LED is both harder to develop technologically and the one
most in demand. Color-LEDs generally use Group III-Nitride based semiconductors
in various binary, ternary, and even quaternary compounds such GaN, InGaN, and
AlGaInP on single crystal substrates. The white-LED can be produced by methods
such as wavelength conversion of single-color LEDs, mixing multiple color LEDs,
and homoepitaxial ZnSe. While the color-mixing technique is the more efficient
technique for producing white-LEDs, it usually poses a challenge for maintaining
a fixed white color over time as the different color LEDs inside degrade differently
over time.
LEDs have steadily improved in performance and cost over the past four decades
and are expected to move from the current limited applications to the much larger
market, i.e., general lighting. Based on research conducted by the Department
of Energy (DOE) and the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA),
LEDs (as Solid State Lighting Devices) will be the preferred method of illumination
in homes and offices by 2025. As such, the white LEDs are building momentum
at a rapid rate and we may very well see a revolution in lighting which would
be comparable to blowing out the gaslights by Edison's incandescent lamp over
100 years ago. The LED technology will compete for all applications from the
smallest personal lamp to the most elaborate lighting system for sports arenas,
providing superior performance and lower cost of ownership, at any point in
this dynamic range of 11 orders of magnitude. As discussed above, the most important
benefit of this disruptive technology will be energy savings and according to
Dr. Roland Haitz, a retired researcher from Agilent, a complete conversion to
LED based lamps could reduce electricity consumption for lighting by up to 75%
and reduce global coal production by approximately 600 Mtons/year. Indeed, there
is no single technology investment on the horizon with a better environmental
benefit to cost ratio. Numerous public and private small to very large
companies are driving the current LED market from over $3 Billion currently
to more than doubling it within the next two years. This pace is only expected
to increase as we head toward 2025. Although there are too many companies involved
in this space, the following are currently most noteworthy: Cree, Nichia, Osram,
Philips-Lumileds, Toyota-Gosei, Seoul Semiconductors, and Showa Denko.
Another major area under development that will address the global energy challenge
is are semiconductor photovoltaics (PV) or, simply, solar cells. Most are made
of silicon, but the high efficiency, multi-junction CS-based cells preferred
for satellite applications are being applied now to terrestrial applications.
In addition to the traditional CS solar technologies created at Spectrolab and
Emcore, a startup company named Nanosolar in California announced the making
of cost efficient CIGS solar cells from copper indium gallium selenide. The
solar cell process, in contrast to the traditional fossil-burning process, generates
electricity without moving parts, noise, or pollution such as greenhouse gas
emission. Currently the global energy demand is growing rapidly. An estimation
from an Washington State University study in January 2003 projected that, in
the years to come, a 25% increase in energy demand in industrial countries and
more than a 100% increase in the developing countries are expected. This concerning
demand along with the rising prices for fossil fuels, concerns about the electric
grid's stability, and worries about global warming are all fueling the growth
of solar cells. The industry is expected to grow from $11 billion in 2005 to
$51 billion in 2015, according to a projection by Clean Edge Inc., a market
research firm focused on clean technology. The solar cell technology is expected
to provide cheaper electricity to the people in the US within the next ten years
according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Adoption of this technology
will also substantially reduce the greenhouse gas emissions (e.g., 25% reduction
expected in California over the next 14 years), which will help expand the market
for solar power.
Understanding that lighting and energy consumption are fundamental part of
our lives, and hence, how successful disruptive technologies in these arenas
can impact our lives and economy is straightforward. Further improvements in
the LED technology, along with lower costs, will drive the current lighting
and display market from a few billion to several tens of billions within the
next decade, while dramatically saving the cost of ownership to individuals
and businesses. The replacement of the current incandescent and fluorescent
lighting will also provide energy savings of over 60% while virtually eliminating
the emission of greenhouse gases from the current lighting technology. Less
straightforward is the electronic device side of CS technology. But we have
seen, and are living through, the age of what silicon has done for our society
with communication and information processing electronic devices and systems.
Compound semiconductors are capable of providing the same electronic functions
as silicon at a significantly smaller scale, especially where silicon technology
is challenged. CS solar cells replacing silicon are a prime example. Undoubtedly,
the cost savings plus the environmental considerations provided by these important
CS technologies will have gigantic impact leading to vast changes in consumers'
lives and global economy. In order to make the implementation of the technologies
rapid and efficient, relevant information distribution and sharing become especially
important as the CS industry starts to escalate to very large proportions.
M. Nisa Khan, Ph.D.
Technology and Finance Consultant
3 Maple Drive, Colts Neck, NJ 07722
Email: nisa.khan@ieee.org
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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