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January 11, 2007...Cree Inc. of Durham North Carolina USA, and Digi-Key Corporation of Thief River
Falls, Minnesota signed a global distribution agreement for Cree’s silicon
carbide-based power devices. Cree, a maker of silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors,
uses the material in power electronics, solid state lighting, and communications.
SiC is ideal for high power and high frequency devices because of its strength
and its ability to dissipate extreme heat.
Digi-Key Corporation will add Cree’s power electronics devices to its
print and online catalogs which already include a range of Schottky diodes.
Digic-Key stocks and sells electronic devices directly to customers. The Schottky
diodes, which Digi-Key stocks, range from 300V to 1200V and have current ratings
from 1A to 20A. Cree said that the distribution agreement will allow Digi-Key
to fulfill both its customers’ design and quantity needs. “Cree’s
expertise in silicon carbide brings greater energy performance to a number of
power applications, including power factor correction in personal computer and
laptop power supplies,” said Mark Larson, Digi-Key president and
CEO. “We are very pleased to add Cree to our line card and certain
that its products will be of consequential interest to many of our customers.”
Cree
News Release Raytheon Reaches Milestone in Testing GaN Circuit Lifetime
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 11, 2007...Raytheon reported achieving a testing milestone for gallium nitride semiconductor
technology. Ratheon’s Integrated Defense Systems division developed GaN
semiconductor circuits which recently went through a strenuous 8,000 hours of
operational testing. The monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) for
military radar, communications, electronic warfare, and missile systems, went
through testing conducted at elevated temperatures and more extreme operating
conditions to simulate performance over about 80,000. According to Raytheon,
this equates to more than nine years of non-stop normal operation. Raytheon
says it plans to continue accumulating test hours on the circuits into 2007.
The company also will run concurrent testing into 2007.
According to Raytheon, GaN semiconductors offer substantially improved power
and functionality beyond current semiconductor technologies. They operate at
higher voltage levels allowing significantly greater power output for the same
size chip. Additionally, the material characteristics of GaN semiconductors
allow efficient multi-band or wideband operation. Raytheon pointed out that
GaN technology used in radar can reduce the antenna size by half while more
than doubling the search volume. This improves the radar's transportability
and reduces acquisition and lifecycle costs. Company
News Release Freescale Reveals New RF Amplifiers
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 10, 2007...Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, Texas USA, unveiled four new general purpose
broadband RF amplifiers. The amplifiers boast the ability to deliver high gain
linearity over bandwidths from DC up to 6 GHz. The company indicated that the
amplifiers are suited for applications ranging from WiMAX base stations to meter
readers, set-top boxes, RFID readers, and any application requiring a cost-effective
small signal gain source. The new devices are reportedly the first of the company’s
to feature indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) active biasing technology, which
reduces performance variation due to temperature and supply voltage variations
and provides ease-of-use for system designers.
The company added the four new devices to its portfolio of 13 other general
purpose amplifiers (GPA). Freescale entered the GPA market in 2004 with gallium
arsenide devices designed to deliver performance and reliability with a dynamic
supply capability. “The addition of these devices strengthens our portfolio
and allows designers to meet a greater variety of system and market requirements,”
said Gavin Woods, vice president and general manager, RF Division, Freescale
Semiconductor. “Customers using these amplifiers will benefit from Freescale's
worldwide technical support and our ability to deliver large volumes consistently.”
According to Freescale, samples of the MMG3014N and MMG3016N are expected in
March 2007 with production planned for May 2007. 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 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 Veeco Introduces New GaN MOCVD Platform for Power LEDs and Blue Lasers
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 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 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 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. 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 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
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