Toyoda Gosei Rolling Out Blue Lasers and White LEDsApril 19, 2001...Not unexpectedly, Toyoda
Gosei officially unveiled its 410nm GaN-based blue and violet laser diode
technology today in Japan. TG's new LDs have an output of 3 milliwatts with
a current continuous lifetime of 5,000 hours. Plans are to ship samples this
fall, then move quickly thereafter into commercial production, targeting applications
as high speed laser printers and DVDs. In additional news from TG, their progress
on the white LED front is that Toyoda Gosei is in joint development with
Toshiba in an effort that integrates TG's GaN-based LEDs and Toshiba’s phosphors
to make their version of a white LED, called "TG White" that is slated
to be marketed and sold by the two companies under their own brand names beginning
this month, with full scale production slated by November. The sample price
set in February when it was announced was between 200 and 300 yen. TG Whites
metrics are approximately 380 nm wavelength The HB-LED for the TG White will
be manufactured by Toyoda Gosei and combined with a phosphor-mixed transparent
resin package developed and produced by Toshiba. More information on TG's full
line of HB-LEDs is available on
their stand-alone HB-LED site. And for those following the current litigation
disputes with Nichia, On March 22 the most
recent judgment was rendered by the Tokyo high court. Rather than attempting to condense the legal terminology, we refer you directly to Toyoda Gosei's "topics
page" on their corporate website which contains a variety of relevant
press releases on the litigation front as well as product development updates. April 19, 2001...People see the term LEDs in OLEDs and sometimes become concerned
that these organic light emitting diodes are threatening compound semi based
HB-LEDs. Relax. There appears to be a consensus among experts that the organics
are targeting current LCDs (liquid crystal displays) versus the hot applications
areas for HB-LEDs, such as replacement for conventional lighting in traffic
signals, a variety of automotive lighting, big screens and as white light replacements.
If you want to check out an ideally typical company on the forefront of OLED
development, look into Universal
Display Corporation (UDC... Nasdaq: PANL) which is teaming with Sony
Corporation (NYSE:SNE) via a joint
development agreement calling for the development of high efficiency active
matrix Organic LED (OLED) display devices for use in large area monitor applications.
Under the agreement, UDC and Sony are slated to develop active matrix OLED displays
with extremely high power efficiency combining UDC's proprietary high efficiency
electrophosphorescent materials and Sony's proprietary low temperature polysilicon
active matrix OLED technology. We also refer you to an overview
of OLEDs from UDC's point of view for more perspective on the topic. Matheson Tri-Gas' Bill Kroll is Creating a New Compound Semiconductor GroupApril 19, 2001...Bill Kroll, who recently retired as Executive VP at Emcore
after taking that compound semi industry leader public, and who played a critical
role in moving Emcore up the foodchain into devices (he was the mastermind behind
both the GELcore and Uniroyal
HB-LED joint ventures and penned Emcore's most critical device supply agreements),
is now waving his magic wand over Matheson
Tri-Gas' Semi-Gas Division and putting together what Matheson is calling
their new Compound
Semiconductor Group. Kroll, who rejoined Matheson
a few months ago, was with Matheson prior to working for Emcore. Since the circles
Bill Kroll moves in tend to function in uniquely effective and cooperative ways,
this new undertaking by one of the real pros in strategic planning should be
well worth watching. The prime mission of the new group is to bring together
the necessary synergy and expertise needed to successfully manufacture AsH3
and PH3, with the close attention the safety and high purity standards those
critical gases require to meet current and projected industry demands. The new
Matheson Tri-Gas Compound Semiconductor Group will also address another critical
need, which is to increase hydride manufacturing by four times the current capacity.
"Our charter is to provide an entire 'suite' of products including bulk gases
such as H2 and N2 as well as all other critical capital and consumable products
used in manufacturing of devices," explained Kroll.
Stanford Microdevices Expands SiGe LineApril 19, 2001...Stanford Microdevices (Nasdaq:
SMDI) expanded its SiGe line with the introduction of a new
line of gain blocks designed to satisfy a broad range of wireless infrastructure
and CATV requirements across the DC to 3000 MHz band. Called the SGA-7489, they
provides the circuit designer with a 50-ohm cascadable gain block featuring
high output IP3 (+36 dBm at 850 MHz), high gain (22 dB at 850 MHz) and a noise
figure of 2.9 dB from a single positive supply voltage. The unit is also designed
to be an IF amplifier, with an OIP3 of +38 dBm and P1dB of +23 dBm at 100 MHz.
For those comparing pricing and packaging with conventional silicon and other
compound semi products, the SGA-7489 is housed in a standard surface-mount SOT-89
package with backside metallization and is priced at $1.95 each in quantities
of 10,000. Optical Transponders Getting Power Management Help from MicrosemiApril 19, 2001...Microsemi Corp. (Nasdaq: MSCC) added
to their string of recent announcements today by introducing
a TEC controller power management product targeted at providing system-engineered
solutions to the optical transponder market. Called the LX1810, this is a full-bridge,
Thermo-Electric Cooler (TEC) controller designed specifically for high performance
optoelectronic and broadband RF products that require precise temperature control
by tuning or stabilizing sensitive optical and RF power amplifier components
in such applications as frequency tunable fiber optic lasers, photo detectors,
wave-guides, and other dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) components.
Other applications include cooling broadband microwave transistors in next-generation
3G base stations. Introducing Siros Technologies to the VCSEL LineupApril 17, 2001...The list of new VCSEL players keeps getting longer. If you haven't already
added Siros Technologies, do so, for this
one appears to be especially well-backed with strong veteran management. A privately
held company, Siros has raised over $36 million to date and is funded
by top venture and corporate investors such as New Enterprise Associates
and Lucent Technologies. Based in Silicon Valley... but certainly not doing
silicon, Siros is lead by Dr.
Barbara Grant who hails originally from IBM. Barbara is CEO and President.
Siros' CTO is Dr. Robert
Thornton, formerly of Xerox PARC. The company today announced the appointment
of Mr. Ajay Anand to Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.
Ajay's past affiliations include Maple Optical Systems, Lucent, and BellSouth
Corporation. Gentex Staying SmartApril 17, 2001...Another smart company... literally and figuratively... that is weathering the
downturn admirably is Gentex Corporation
(Nasdaq: GNTX), the Zeeland, Michigan-based manufacturer of automatic-dimming
rearview mirrors which were one of the first applications of cleverly packaged
white HB-LEDs. Gentex reported record
revenues for the first quarter and also announced it has received a second
OEM customer commitment for their other smart auto application, which is called
SmartBeam, and provides even more safety and convenience for drivers
in the form of an intelligent high-beam headlamp control system. Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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