|
January 23, 2007...Cree Inc. of Durham, North Carolina USA, reported in the company's recent earnings conference call that it has qualified its 4-inch wafer processes for fabrication
of Schottky diodes and LEDs. Cree CEO, Chuck Swoboda explained to analysts that the switch from
3-inch wafers to 4-inch wafers to produce die for power LED chips helps improve
production yields. This is because, when a design requires the same width from
the edge of a wafer to the circuit, the unused edge portion of the wafer makes
up a smaller percentage of the total area on a wafer with a wider diameter.
As a result, a greater percentage of the wafer can be used for circuits.
Cree also indicated in its second quarter fiscal 2007 conference call that
it would begin the switch to 4-inch wafers on a small percentage of its power LED and
Schottky diode production and that the company hopes the switch to 4-inch wafers will prove to lower
overall production costs in addition to increasing production yield. Cree reported lower demand, however, for its power LEDs and Schottky diodes for the quarter,
and that this lead to lower levels of production in its fab facility. In the coming
years, however, Swoboda underscored that Cree expects increasing demand for its high brightness LEDs, especially
in automotive lighting. Cree
News Release and Link to Conference Call Promotions Take Place at Native GaN Substrate Supplier, Kyma Technologies
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 22, 2007...Kyma Technologies of Raleigh, North Carolina USA, a supplier of native gallium nitride substrates and materials, has reported that Dr. Edward Preble, the company's former VP of engineering, has been promoted to the position of chief operating officer (COO) and that Mark Williams, company co-founder and former COO has left the company to pursue other opportunities. Kyma also reported the promotion of Terry Clites to the position of operations manager, reporting directly to Dr. Preble.
“Ed has demonstrated great leadership qualities and has played a very key role in positioning Kyma for a great future. We are very pleased to promote him to this position, which is critical to Kyma’s continued growth,” stated Dr. Keith Evans, president and CEO of Kyma. In his new capacity, Ed Preble reports directly to Dr. Evans, taking on the responsibility for monitoring and improving daily operations of the company
and participating in long term strategic planning.
Ed Preble began working for the Kyma in 2003 as senior
engineer, and was promoted to VP of engineering in 2005. Prior to joining Kyma, Preble was employeed by the General Electric Company after receiving his Ph.D. in the famed North Carolina State University Materials Science and Engineering department under Professor Bob
Davis which spawned a number of notable wide bandgap semiconductor leaders who went on to found notable companies in the field, including Cree and Nitronex. Dr. Preble has authored over 35
scientific journal articles and is an inventor on eight pending patents. Terry Clites began working for Kyma in 2003 as a Crystal Growth Engineer. He was previously a Manufacturing Engineer with Sony Semiconductor where he became a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt. He has an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Florida and a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from Clemson University. Terry has done a great job in driving establishment of a quality-minded culture throughout Kyma’s organization,” said Dr. Preble. Company
News Release Munich Court Rules in Favor of Veeco in AFM Dispute
CompoundSemi News StaffJanuary 22, 2007...Veeco Instruments of Woodbury, New York USA, noted for it's compound semi epiwafer machinery and atomic force microscopes (AFM), has reported that the European patent
office in Munich has ruled in favor of Veeco in the company's dispute over AFMs with Asylum Research Inc. The Munich court has dismissed the opposition
filed by Asylum Research Inc. against Veeco’s European Patent No. 839,312
(the '312 patent). Asylum Research, a company started by former Veeco employees,
claimed that Veeco’s ‘312 patent was invalid. The patent relates
to the use of an atomic force microscopes in what's called Tapping Mode (a term for which a patent has been applied) with phase
or frequency detection to image the topography and surface characteristics of
a sample. According to Veeco, a three judge panel dismissed each of the grounds for opposition
asserted by Asylum and affirmed the validity of the Veeco patent.
Veeco said it is also pursuing an infringement lawsuit against Asylum Research
Inc. in the Central District Court of California. The complaint in this lawsuit alleges
that the manufacture, use and sale of Asylum's MFP-3D atomic force microscope
constitutes willful infringement of five Veeco patents, including the U.S. counterpart
to the European '312 patent. Veeco said it expects a favorable outcome in the
lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction
to stop infringement. Veeco News Release Cree Revenue Falls, But New Products Begin Brisk Sales in Q2 Fiscal 2007January 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
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 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 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 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 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
|
