|
Editorial: Bob Walker Joins Sierra Ventures
... Our good friend and longtime compound semi industry leader Robert C. (Bob) Walker has made up his mind earlier than expected about what the next step in his colorful and successful career would be. He has signed on as a principal with one of the most prestigious international venture...
Jump down to the full story
| |
Features:
|
|
November 21, 2007...TDI has been awarded a U.S. patent (7,279,047 B2, the latest of a series for the company) that covers production equipment for low-defect nitride semiconductor materials including bulk gallium nitride and aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) substrates. The patent, titled "Reactor for extended duration growth of gallium containing single crystals," relates to a crystal growth machine for fabricating GaN and AlGaN single crystal materials using a modified hydride vapor phase epitaxial (HVPE) process. According to TDI, its new production tool allows long lasting, high growth rate processes for high quality GaN and AlGaN single crystal materials.
"I am excited to see our intellectual property expanded by this new patent," says Vladimir Dmitriev, President and CEO of TDI. "This equipment will enable significant improvements in quality, stability and efficiency of crystal growth technology. It will be applied to fabrication of a variety of products including multi-wafer manufacturing of free-standing and bulk GaN substrates, particularly for Solid State Lighting applications. Fabrication of low-cost low-defect GaN substrates is the key for rapid penetration of Solid State Lighting in the Global lighting market." Company News Release
Spire Corporation to Develop GaAs Solar Concentrator Cells
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 21, 2007...Spire Corporation of Bedford, Massachusetts USA, a company that makes turnkey production lines for silicon-based solar cells will apparently soon be working on developing gallium arsenide GaAs-based solar concentrator cells. Roger G. Little, Chairman and CEO of Spire, said in a news release about company financial results, "We ... are starting a new program to develop high-efficiency gallium arsenide solar concentrator cells and we are seeing strong customer interest in partnering with Bandwidth in this exciting new market." Company Q3 Financial Results
Heliovolt Adds Board Members and Wins Award for Printed Electronics
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 21, 2007...Heliovolt Corporation of Austin, Texas USA, has selected two board members to help the company commercialize its copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cell technology. The company added E. Kenneth Pentimonti, principal at Paladin Capital and Ronald D. Bernal, partner at Sequel Venture Partners to its board of directors. Heliovolt pointed out that the two new board members recently participated as investors in HelioVolt’s $101 million Series B funding round, which Heliovolt said would help fund the global scale-up of the company.
“As we move beyond proof of concept to commercial production in the coming year, Ken and Ron bring the invaluable market insight, strategic relationships and operational know-how necessary to successfully translate a promising solar technology into a world-class commercial enterprise,” said HelioVolt CEO and founder, Dr. BJ Stanbery. Company News Release.
Heliovolt also recently announced that it was honored with the Printed Electronics USA 2007 Award from IDTechEx, an independent international consulting firm specializing in printed electronics, RFID, and smart packaging. IDTechEx honored the company with the Best New Product Development Award for the technical achievement, broad market potential, and competitive advantages of the company’s innovative photovoltaic coatings. Company News Release
Kyma Reports Volume Production of AlN Template Substrates
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 19, 2007...Kyma Technologies, a supplier of high purity gallium nitride and aluminum nitride products, announced the recent volume shipment of 2-inch diameter c-plane AlN template substrates. Kyma’s AlN template substrates, which are sized up to 100 mm and have a highly oriented AlN deposited on sapphire or other substrates, help reduce cost of producing gallium nitride devices with a low dislocation density. The company points out that the c-axis preferred orientation of the AlN on the sapphire provides the ideal foundation for growing GaN thin films. Unlike other substrates, they do not have the added expense and complications associated with the buffering process that others require. Kyma's innovation also reduces the cost of using pure aluminum nitride substrates by at least an order of magnitude while giving the same performance as pure aluminum nitride substrates.
Dr. Ed Preble, Kyma's Chief Operating Officer said that the AlN substrate templates offer a low-cost method of acheiving achieving a dislocation density of 107 cm-2. He added, "The use of our AlN templates offers customers an attractive alternative to traditional two-temperature or direct nucleation schemes on sapphire, SiC or silicon substrates."
“Our AlN templates have been shown to present excellent starting surfaces for subsequent growth of GaN layers by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and also by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE),” commented Dr. Drew Hanser, Kyma’s Chief Technology Officer and VP Business Development. “We also have customers testing our AlN templates in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) based processes and we are confident about the results.” Company News Release New Jersey Technology Council Honors Anadigics as Electronics Company of the Year for 2007November 19, 2007...The New Jersey Technology Council has selected Anadigics as its 2007 Electronics Company of the Year. The Council named Anadigics this year's recipient based on the business strategy and market growth compared against other electronics companies throughout New Jersey. According to the Council, It also cited Anadigics for its leadership in the semiconductor electronics market and its continued promotion of third- and fourth- generation technology, specifically for the broadband wireless and wireline communication markets. New Jersey Technology Council News Release RFMD Adds to Portfolio for Optimum Technology Matching Designers and CustomersNovember 19, 2007...RFMD has introduced several technologies that the company says will allow customers to have unprecedented levels of integration for their RF solutions. The company indicated that the newly introduced technologies include: wafer level packaging (WLP), micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS), integrated conformal shielding, gallium nitride (GaN), GaAs E/D pHEMT, and GaAs BiFET.
RFMD designers leverage its proprietary method of Optimum Technology Matching that allows RFMD's designers to select the optimum technology for each application according to considerations of cost and performance. RFMD says its new technologies add to the already impressive portfolio of products that the designers can choose from for the Optimum Technology Matching. The company also expects that the new technology will expand growth prospects for its newly for its newly-formed Multi-Market Products Group. Company News Release
In other company news, RFMD reported that it has shipped its 100 millionth Polaris RF Solution to a leading handset manufacturer. At the same time the company says that orders for the third version of its Polaris RF solution, the Polaris 3, continue to grow. Company News Release Rubicon Announces IPO Price
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 19, 2007...Rubicon Technology of Franklin Park, Illinois USA, announced that the initial public offering of 6,700,000 shares of common stock would be at a price of $14 per share. Rubicon will sell 5,500,000 shares, and selling stockholders will sell 1,200,000 shares.The company also granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,005,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. Rubicon Technology's common stock will be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market under the trading symbol "RBCN." Company News Release RFMD Completes Acquisition of Sirenza; Launches Multi-Market Components Group
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 14, 2007...As anticipated, RFMD has completed the acquisition of Sirenza Microdevices, an RF component supplier. The total price of the acquisition was about $900 million for the purchase of all of the outstanding shares of Sirenza stock. The total of $900 million for the purchase comes from about $300 million in cash, and $600 million in RFMD stock. Sirenza common stock will no longer be publicly traded and is no longer listed on Nasdaq. The management teams of two companies will reportedly be combined. Bob Van Buskirk, president and CEO of Sirenza prior to the acquisition, will relocate to North Carolina to lead RFMD's new Multi-Market Products Group(MPG). Bob Bruggeworth, president and CEO of RFMD, will serve as president and CEO of the combined company. The board of directors of the combined company will be made up of the current nine members of RFMD's board and two new members from Sirenza's board.
"The acquisition of Sirenza Microdevices brings RFMD a broad set of customers and a diversified product portfolio of high performance RF components for multiple markets," said Bob Bruggeworth, president and CEO of RFMD. RFMD News Release
At the launch of the Multi-Market Products Group, Bob Van Buskirk, president of MPG stated, "We expect the formation of the Multi-Market Products Group will enable RFMD to significantly diversify its business and drive new, profitable growth opportunities beyond the cellular handset market." RFMD News Release Nitronex’s GaN on Si RF Power Transistor Ready for Mass Production
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 14, 2007...Nitronex, a company specializing in gallium nitride with headquarters in Durham, North Carolina USA, has developed a GaN on Si RF power transistor. The 28V, 5W class high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) is designed for broadband applications from DC – 6.0 GHz. It is fabricated using Nitronex’s patented Sigantic (volume deposition of GaN on Silicon) NRF1 process. The transister, the NPTB00004 achieves 250mW average output power at 1% EVM in 3.5GHz WiMAX systems (single carrier OFDM, 64- QAM 3/4, 8 burst, 20ms frame, 15ms frame data, 3.5MHz channel bandwidth, peak/avg = 10.3dB). The transistor is packaged in plastic over-molded SOIC-8 package with an exposed thermal pad. The pricing for the transistors is $9 each in quantities of 1000.
“Having seen market demand for full transmitter lineups based on GaN technology we developed the NPTB00004, an excellent pre-driver for our higher power products such as the NPT25100. Combined with other broadband Nitronex devices, this device allows designers to develop power amplifiers for multiple frequency bands using a common power device lineup,” said Ray Crampton, Director of Marketing at Nitronex. Company News Release Skyworks Introduces FEMTO Cell Solutions Used at Samsung
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 14, 2007...Skyworks has announced that Samsung is using its transceivers, power amplifiers and LNAs in FEMTO cell applications. FEMTO cells are small cellular base stations that pick up a wireless signal in residential or small business environments and then amplify and rebroadcast the signal in broadband. The transceivers, power amplifiers, and LNAs provide a solution for FEMTO cell systems. According to In-Stat, the number of FEMTO cell subscriptions (installed devices) worldwide is expected to grow to 40 million by 2011 and surpass 100 million end-users over the next five years.
“Skyworks is uniquely suited to support the demanding system requirements of FEMTO cells given our technology breadth and depth,” said Stan Swearingen, Skyworks’ vice president and general manager of Linear Products.
The FEMTO cell solution related products that are entering volume production at Skyworks include: The SKY74068 is a highly integrated transmitter for dual-band CDMA applications operating in cellular CDMA, AMPS, and PCS modes; The KY74092 is a highly integrated CDMA/PCS LNA for dual-band and tri-mode that provides low noise amplification with high linearity to achieve a high dynamic range; The SKY74100 is a highly integrated receiver for tri-band CDMA applications with GPS capability;
SKY77410 is a load insensitive power amplifier (LIPA) module for WCDMA applications. Skyworks News Release Honda Soltec Thin-Film CIGS Production Facility Opens
CompoundSemi News StaffNovember 12, 2007...Honda Soltec, Honda’s wholly-owned solar cell subsidiary, commemorated the opening of its solar cell production facility with a ceremony attended by about 80 dignitaries. Soltec’s plant will produce thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. According to the company, producing the CIGS solar cells consumes only half as much energy as it does to produce the conventional silicon crystal solar cells with the equivalent electrical output.
The facility will have a capacity of 27.5 megawatts of solar cells per year. This is enough to power about 9,000 homes. The company has reportedly begun sales of solar cells throughout japan from 80 distributor locations. Each module produces either 125 or 115 watts of electricity and has an estimated retail value of over $550 dollars with tax. The company said it hopes to accelerate sales by increasing the number of distributor locations to more than 200 within 2008. Company 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 |
|
The
McDonald Report
Commentary & Perspective...
Bob Walker Joins Sierra Ventures
Jo Ann McDonald, founding editorNovember 14, 2007...Our good friend and longtime compound semi industry leader Robert C. (Bob)
Walker has made up his mind earlier than expected about what the next step in
his colorful and successful career would be. He has signed on as a principal
with one of the most prestigious international venture capital firms from Silicon
Valley's famed "Sand Hill Road" group, Sierra
Ventures.
Just about everyone in the compound semi industry knows Bob Walker. If you're
new to our industry, it's my pleasure to introduce him to you. If you're one
of the gang and know him well, sit back and enjoy my offbeat look back at some
of the aspects of Bob's colorful career because he and I go back to the heydays
when Emcore and Aixtron virtually established today's CS industry.
Moving from the present let's first take a look at Sierra and Bob's most recent
accomplishments. This particular VC firm has an excellent reputation. Bob got
to know them while serving as CEO of BridgeLux.
He headed the company for two years, restructuring it to now be regarded
as a recognized innovator in "power" LEDs in what is currently
the most exciting sector in the compound semi industry.
One of Bob's last great deeds at BridgeLux was to hand over the reins to none
other than Mark Swoboda,
formerly executive VP of Philips Lumileds Lighting.
Sierra Ventures is based in Menlo Park, California in the very heart and soul
of "Silicon Valley". The firm is located on Sand Hill Road, which
is way more than just a street address. "Sand Hill Road" is an information
technology industry legend. Silicon Valley was spawned and nurtured by Sand
Hill Road venture capitalists since the very beginnings of the phenomenon in
the 1960s. I know. I was there. My first "real" job at 21 years old
was as a receptionist at Varian Associates in 1961 when the actual Varian brothers
were still around. Varian was a stone's throw from Sand Hill Road, which is essentially
a nest of quiet, attractive offices located in the beautiful hills that literally
overlook Stanford University and the entire Valley, which now reaches from San
Francisco to Monterey on the western ocean side, and inland almost to the majestic
Sierra mountains, from which Sierra Ventures took its name. Sierra Ventures
has been around since 1982 and manages nine venture capital partnerships, which
together have more than $1.5 billion of committed capital.
Sierra's reputation is as an investor in what they term all areas of Information
Technology, the exception being biotechnology, medical device, or healthcare
companies. With the addition of Bob Walker, they're obviously branching beyond
software and internet companies. Bob will be working under one of Sierra's managing
directors, Ben
Yu, and will be focusing his attention on new investments in the areas of
solid state lighting, cleantech, compound semiconductors, and semiconductor
components and devices. Sierra's investments are global in geography, but Bob
will particularly focus on his well-established relationships in North America
and Asia. One of the things I liked seeing when catching up on Sierra was the
term "cleantech." All one word and a word that says it so clearly.
How proud we all should be that the CS industry's advanced photovoltaics and
solid state lighting technologies are literally leading the way in the cleantech
space.
Leadership. That's what it's always been about, and Bob Walker has naturally
assumed a leadership position in our CS industry since I first met him in the
mid 1990s at Emcore. When Bill Kroll, then executive VP of Emcore talked me
into hanging up my journalist credentials for a bit to step inside the industry
and serve as Director of Corporate Communications at Emcore, Bob Walker was
the head of marketing and communications and essentially became my boss.
He certainly wasn't bossy and ran the division as a true team effort. We never
had it so good... and neither did the then-fledgling CS industry. That was back
when Emcore was still primarily a MOCVD reactor manufacturer, competing head-on
with Aixtron. Looking back, I'm convinced that the competition between those
two incredible companies was the key ingredient in launching the compounds.
The move by so many into high volume manufacturing of CS epitaxial wafers and
components was the turning point. Prior to that, from the 70s through the early
1990s, the CS materials science and technology was the realm of high level defense
applications and R&D. Esoteric. Exotics. "The components of the
future and... always will be." While we'll probably never reach the
numbers silicon components have reached, we'll always hold the performance records and our
industry's contributions in the fields of solid state lighting and advanced
solar cells will go down in history as the epitome of cleantech. And
you simply wouldn't have today's optical communication, handheld devices and DVDs without us. The wave
of the future has overpowered everyone... and long may we wave.
Bob Walker is someone who had the vision back in the mid-1990s and he's continued
to help lead us ever since. He was one of the first to spot Shuji Nakamura's
contributions to blue spectrum LED world. (I've never seen anyone try so
hard to sell Shuji an Emcore reactor!) Bob was one of the pioneers in establishing
working ties for CS suppliers in Taiwan, and later, mainland China. He was one
of the first to recognize the power of the Internet and enlist it for communicating
with Emcore's customer and shareholder base. When Emcore went public, Bob was there to help
make a tremendous contribution towards weaving the corporate message
to the general public and especially the company's future international audience.
Along with Tom Miehe, Bob and the Emcore sales team headed the drive into Taiwan
with MOCVD reactors for the growth of blue spectrum (white) LEDs, vying with Aixtron
for every inch of the market. The now trite joke was that there were so many MOCVD
machines in Taiwan that the island was in danger of sinking!
Since the Emcore MOCVD-days, and prior to joining BridgeLux, Bob Walker made significant
contributions in the areas of Pacific Rim market analysis and venture funding.
From 2001 - 2004 he served as managing director-US of Vincera Ventures, a US$150M
venture capital fund based in Taiwan with several investments in the areas of
HB LEDs and compound semiconductors. A Ph.D. grad from Cal Tech and originally
from Wisconsin where he attended U of Wisconsin-Madison, Bob Walker endeared
himself especially closely to us here at CompoundSemi Online Inc. when
working in conjunction with Strategies Unlimited to produce the seminal work
that assessed the true impact of the HB-LED revolution, the Asia High Brightness
LED Report in 2003. He also served as co-chair of our CompoundSemi Blue
2004 and Blue 2005 Solid
State Lighting international industry conferences in Taiwan. Blue
2008, by the way, will be held May 7-8.
And on a personal note, Bob Walker and his wife, Ella Shum have contributed
to the industry in untold ways, starting with their days together at Emcore
through their many contributive projects under their joint consulting firm,
YEBY Associates. Ella and Bob have two lovely
children and continue to astound us with how representative they are, as a family,
of the future. They give us hope. So in my book, it's nothing but good news
that Bob Walker has joined Sierra Ventures. He'll be a welcome bridge for many
of you into the greater world of venture funding. Lucky us. Lucky Sierra Ventures. If you have questions about the
solid state lighting and compound semiconductor industries or have news
or views to share, I'm Jo Ann McDonald, Editor of LIGHTimes and CompoundSemi News.
Feel free to contact me directly, anytime. 
My direct tel at the ranch is
+1-325-463-5345
From time to time Jo Ann may comment on companies in which she holds a
modest investment - be sure to read
her disclosure at some point in time... |
