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January 19, 2007...Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA reported a 16 percent revenue decrease for the second quarter of fiscal
2007 ending December 24, 2006, compared to the same period a year ago. Profit
for the quarter declined about 6.8 percent compared to a year ago. For
the first half of fiscal 2007, the company’s revenues decreased by 8 percent
compared to the first half of fiscal 2006. Net income for the first half of
the fiscal year dropped about 24 percent, despite being bolstered by the sale
of marketable securities.
In the conference call following the release of the company’s financial
results, Cree’s president and CEO, Chuck Swoboda cited slower LED chip
sales as the reason for the decline in revenue. “The LED slowdown
was primarily due to lower sales of our mid brightness chip products for mobile
phones and other applications,” Swoboda said. Content continues for LIGHTimes SecondPage members... NL Nanonsemiconductor Becomes Innolume; Delves into Silicon Photonics
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 19, 2007...NL Nanosemiconductor, a company that specializes in quantum dot semiconductor
laser technology based in Dortmond, Germany, announced that it is changing its
name to “Innolume.” The company also announced that it has added
to its management team to develop silicon photonics at its new facility in Santa
Clara, California USA.
Innolume reported advances in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) using
quantum dot technology for the 1.3Cm spectral range. SOAs boosts optical signals
that have traveled long distances and attenuated through fiber. The company’s
new device is based on an AlGaAs/GaAs laminated structure grown on a GaAs substrate.
It incorporates an efficient InAs/InGaAs quantum dot active region. The company
points out that previously, quantum dot-based SOAs could not compete against
InP-based SOAs in terms of net gain and gain saturation. Innolume has demonstrated
a significant improvement in the operation of QD-based SOAs with a fiber-to-fiber
small signal gain as high as 25 dB and a saturation output power at -3dB in
excess of 10 dBm. The device uses Innloume’s proprietary quantum-dot technology
platform which has been previously used for development of advanced mode-locked
lasers, broadband lasers, and high-power lasers. Company
News Release CIR Says Silicon Photonics Will Go into VOAs and Reduce Ethernet Cost
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 19, 2007...CIR, a company which reports on the optoelectronic market, will released a
new report about silicon photonics in February. CIR’s report predicts
that the use of silicon photonics will grow, despite that it may never reach
the performance of compound semiconductors in optoelectronics. The report notes
that high performance silicon photonics may never be able to match the power
and optical integration of the indium phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs)
optical components. CIR said that the ability to use standard CMOS technology
was one major factor that would drive down the cost of silicon photonics. CIR
says the adoption of silicon photonics will start with the deployment of silicon
waveguides for VOAs, and it will increase with the technology’s ability
to greatly reduce the cost of 10 Gig Ethernet while improving data transmission
rates and connection speeds. CIR
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Kyma Awarded New DOD Development Contract for Native GaN Substrate Device Technology
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 16, 2007...The United States Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded Kyma Technologies
of Raleigh, North Carolina USA, a $3.3 million mult-year contract to develop
high-power high frequency electronic device technology. The contract, which draws
some of its funding from both the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Air Force
Research Laboratory (AFRL), hopes to utilize the company’s low defect density
native GaN substrates to
develop and advance high-power high frequency (HPHF) electronic device technology
for applications such as: radar, electronic warfare, communications, and optoelectronic
systems critical to the DOD. (“Native GaN substrates” refers to single
crystal GaN substrates that are sliced from crystalline boules of GaN.) Kyma points out that the new contract leverages
the achievements and plans of several of the company’s ongoing cooperative research
and development agreements with the AFRL, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)
and several MDA small business innovative research programs (SBIRs) and small
business technology transfer research programs (STTRs) (Ref: NRL
Coverage, AFRL
Coverage, MDA
Coverage).
Mr. John Blevins of AFRL’s Materials Directorate is the technical monitor of the new program,
while Dr. Drew Hanser, Kyma’s CTO and VP Business Development, is the
principal investigator. “While today’s HPHF GaN device technology
has reached impressive performance levels, reliability issues remain which we
believe are tied to the current reliance on foreign substrates. Kyma’s
native GaN has the potential to solve these problems by enabling a higher quality
device active region. Our overall approach is to use the best materials possible,
prove out the device benefits, while working in parallel to make these materials
more readily available,” said Hanser.
Dr. Keith Evans, Kyma’s president and CEO, added, “This program
represents an important contribution to our mission to provide our customers
with a range of best-in-class III-nitride products. We are thankful for the
vision and the support of our DoD colleagues and are dedicated to making this
a successful effort.” Kyma
News Release Spire's Bandwidth Awarded Nasa Contract
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 16, 2007...NASA’s John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio USA, has awarded
Spire Corporation a $600,000 contract to develop a new type of thermo photovoltaic
(TPV) cell that produces electricity from heat. In theory, NASA could use TPV
cells to generate electricity from heat produced by radioisotope sources for
long duration space missions. Potential consumer applications include using
heat from combustion to produce electricity.
According to Spire, the work will be carried out in part at its wholly owned
subsidiary, Bandwidth Semiconductor. Bandwidth Semiconductor reportedly already
offers gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar concentrator cells for converting the sun’s
energy to electricity. Bandwidth Semiconductor says it has over ten years of
experience producing cells like these TPV cells, which use indium gallium arsenide
(InGaAs), a variation of GaAs. Spire
News Release SatCon Awarded Subcontract in DARPA Diode Battery Project
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 15, 2007...SatCon Technology, a maker and developer of power electronics of Boston, Massachusetts
USA, reports that it was awarded a $208 thousand subcontract from North Dakota
State University (NDSU) to design electronics for an advanced Diode Battery.
NDSU was contracted through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
contract to develop a Micro-Isotope Power Supply. NDSU has subcontracted SatCon
Technology to design power conditioning and management for the battery devices
that NDSU is producing. Other collaborators on the team include: experts from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Battelle Pacific Northwest Division (Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory), and the Naval Research Laboratory.
According to SatCon the goal of the program is to develop a one cubic centimeter
AlphaVoltaic (AV) battery that can deliver 35 milliwatts continuously for many
months to many years. SatCon explained in its news release that the principle
of the operation is very similar to photovoltaics (PV) with the radioisotope
the source of energy rather than the sun. The AlphaVoltaic is designed for higher
energy excitation, using wider bandgap materials than photovoltaics. SatCon
also said that batteries like these could be used to power unattended sensors
for applications such as perimeter defense networks and other broader applications.
SatCon's Chief Executive Officer, Dave Eisenhaure stated, "The company
is poised for substantial growth in alternative energy solutions and advanced
technology for energy and power management. We believe such development programs
will advance the state of the art in energy storage - critical for the widespread
adoption of alternative energy technologies. This contract underscores our leadership
in supplying power conversion products in a new and growing market for advanced
power solutions." SatCon
News Release RFMD Releases GaAs pHEMT RF Switches
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 15, 2007...RF Micro Devices showcased its newest RF switches last week at the IEEE Radio
and Wireless conference in Long Beach, California USA, January 9-11. According
to RFMD, the RF1200 and the RF1450 utilize the company’s gallium arsenide
manufacturing capability and switch technology for the company’s transmit
modules in applications including: multi-mode GSM / WCDMA cellular handsets,
antenna tuners, IEEE802.11a/b/g WLAN and cellular infrastructure.
Reportedly meeting all the linearity requirements for WCDMA, the RF1200 is
a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) high-power switch that features low insertion
loss, low control voltage and what RFMD says are very good harmonic characteristics.
It is fabricated with 0.5um GaAs pHEMT process and is packaged in a very compact
2X2mm, 6-pin, leadless QFN package. The RF1450, designed for multimode WCDMA
applications, is a single-pole four-throw (SP4T) high-power switch specifically
designed to provide what RFMD contends is superior linearity performance. It
includes integrated decoding logic, allowing just two control lines needed for
switch control. It is packaged in a compact 3X3X0.6mm, 16-pin, leadless QFN
package. Company
News Release Xponent Photonics Goes Fabless With Help From GCS
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 15, 2007...Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS), Inc. of Torrence, California USA
and Xponent Photonics, Inc. have signed a foundry service agreement in which
GCS will manufacture Xponent’s product portfolio. Under the agreement
GCS will utilize its proprietary laser and PIN PD (positive intrinsic negative
photo diode) processes to manufacture Xponent’s product portfolio.
GCS will use high-volume 4-inch wafer manufacturing techniques to produce the
optical component portfolio for Xponent. Xponent produces a wide range of opto-electronic
components including: triplexer and diplexer FTTx components, transmitter optical
subassemblies (TOSA), fiber ready optical assemblies (FROA), and fiber aligned
packages. Xponent says it uses translates the complexity found in traditional
optical assemblies into surface mounted photonics. According to Xponent, these
SMP chips are designed for low cost manufacturing criteria such as: waferscale
fabrication, test and burn-in of Surface Mount Photonics chips; low-cost assembly
using passive alignment on flip-chip die bonders (i.e. no active laser welding
or other active alignments required); Environmental sealing with simple encapsulant.
No hermetic packaging is required. Xponent says its goal is to become a broad-based
horizontal supplier of merchant optical assemblies and chipsets.
"We're pleased to be working with GCS. They have an outstanding track
record of success with fabrication of state-of-the-art InP and GaAs devices
and are right on target with the technology transfer," said Jeff Rittichier,
President and CEO of Xponent. "With the completion of the GCS transfer
in late winter, Xponent will be the world's only completely fabless volume producer
of optical components." GCS
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 Digi-Key Agrees to Distribute Cree’s SiC Power ElectronicsJanuary 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
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