Air Liquide to Acquire Electronics Materials Company, Voltaix
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2013...Air Liquide of Paris, France, has signed an agreement to acquire Voltaix
Inc., a U.S.-based electronics materials company. The acquisition is expected
to close later this summer, pending applicable regulatory approvals. Air
Liquide, with its ALOHA™ product line, supplies precursors for
semiconductor manufacturing. Precursors are molecules with specific physical
and chemical properties that are used in depositing layers during fabrication
of microelectronic devices.
Voltaix is a manufacturer of materials used in the production of
semiconductor devices and advanced solar cells. Voltaix reportedly has
expertise in silicon, germanium, and boron chemistries. It operates
manufacturing facilities in the U.S. in Branchburg, New Jersey, High Springs,
Florida, and Portland, Pennsylvania, and in South Korea in Sejong-si (South
Chungcheong Province).
According to Air Liquide, the acquisition of Voltaix complements its
ALOHA™ product line, and brings together synergies in molecule discovery
and scale up, to help accelerate the introduction of a broader portfolio of new
high-tech materials. 5N Plus to Open New Gallium Chemicals Facility in South Korea
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2013...5N Plus Inc of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a specialty metal and chemical products company, plans to open a new gallium chemicals facility in South Korea to meet the growing demand for gallium in LED manufacturing in North-East Asia.
5N Plus offers purified metals such as bismuth, gallium, germanium, indium, antimony, cadmium, selenium and tellurium. The firm also produces II-VI semiconducting compounds such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), cadmium sulphide (CdS) and indium antimonide (InSb) as precursors for crystal growth for solar, LED and other electronics materials applications.
5N Plus has existing gallium chemicals manufacturing facilities in Madison, Wisconsin, USA and Wellingborough, UK. The new plant will be located in an industrial park near a several electronic manufacturing facilities. 5N Plus expects the new facility to be operational by the end of 2013. A local chemical distributor has reportedly agreed to operate and provide logistics for the new 5N Plus facility.
In addition to LEDs, high-purity gallium metal and chemicals are also essential for manufacturing products such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) electronic components for 3/4G wireless applications, indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) transparent semiconductor for next-generation displays, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar panels, and gallium antimonide (GaSb) wafers for infrared (IR) detection and imagery systems. Saudi Aramco Chooses Soitec’s CPV Solar Technology
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2013...The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), has decided to use Soitec’s
concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology for a 1-megawatt solar-energy pilot plant in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Tabuk region. Saudi Aramco is an oil and chemical company that is owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The announcement came
from Partners Khaled Juffali Company (KJC), a Saudi Arabian investment company,
and Soitec, a semiconductor materials for supplier. This project with Saudi
Aramco, the world’s largest oil producer, is reportedly the first
business win for KJC and Soitec since the two companies agreed in April to help
to increase the adoption of solar energy in Saudi Arabia and the Middle
East.
After a competitive bidding process and a rigorous evaluation of various
equipment suppliers, the company selected Soitec’s CPV technology based
on its perfect fit with the region. Saudi Aramco hopes to both complete the
work on schedule and test the performance of CPV technology to better assess
its levelized cost of energy (LCOE) advantage for future utility-scale
installations.
BELECTRIC Saudi Arabia LLC, has developed the project based on
Soitec’s technology and will build the plant. The company previously
built the country’s largest solar power plant at Saudi Aramco’s
headquarters.
Soitec says its CPV technology during the day can deliver practically
constant power output using dual axis tracking, Fresnel lenses to concentrate
the sun 500 times, and multi-junction solar cells, to provide efficiencies of
up to 30 percent, or approximately twice that of conventional photovoltaic
technologies. Infinera Introduces Intelligent Transport Network Architecture
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 17, 2013...Sunnyvale, California-based Infinera, has introduced the Intelligent
Transport Network™, an architecture for carriers to provide reliable,
differentiated services at a lower operating cost. Infinera says that the
Intelligent Transport Network reduces operating costs through scale,
multi-layer convergence, and automation. The Intelligent Transport Network can
now provide 500 Gb/s FlexCoherent™ super-channels, and the company claims
it can scale without compromise to enable terabit super-channels and Terabit
Ethernet in the future.Infinera’s new architecture enables multi-layer
convergence of chassis, network layers and fiber interconnects that unlike
other systems can decrease the complexity. Infinera says that this reduced
complexity leads to decreases in the cost of maintenance, operations, power,
space, and cooling.
Infinera contends that its new architecture also converges packet, OTN and
reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) switching functions to
reduce complexity while lowering overall network spending without compromising
performance. According to Infinera, the Intelligent Transport Network features
software to help simplify multi-layer provisioning, and will eventually support
Transport Software Defined Network (SDN). Infinera says that its Intelligent
Transport Network features automation to allow end-users to control their own
network services. Infinera also says its Instant Bandwidth™.aligns
service revenue to transport network growth.
Dave Welch, Infinera EVP and chief strategy officer commented, "Unlike
the competition, we are not retrofitting legacy 10G and 40G platforms. We have
designed the Intelligent Transport Network from the ground up for the Terabit
Era." First Solar Granted 50MW Power Purchase Agreement for Proposed Solar Plant
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 10, 2013...First Solar, Inc. has been granted a power purchase agreement (PPA) from the
New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission. The PPA allows First Solar to begin
construction on New Mexico's Largest solar plant. The CdTe thin film solar power plant will be located on State Trust Land in Luna County. The Paso Electric
Company agreed to purchase the entire output power from the Macho Springs solar
power project that will operate on a commercial lease from the State Land
Office on about 500 acres of land at Macho Springs, near Deming.
The proposed Macho Springs solar plant is expected to immediately save on
water compared to gas-fired or coal-fired generating plants, and will also have
zero air emissions. It will reportedly generate about 669 kilowatt hours of
electricity per month or enough to power about 18000 average New Mexico homes.
The recently submitted final development plan also includes specific mitigation
plans and strategies. The company is also obtaining various construction
permits.
"This 50 megawatt solar power project will provide about 300 jobs during
the construction phase, which is a huge boost to New Mexico's ailing
construction industry, and it will provide a constant stream of revenue for our
public schools, universities and hospitals," said State Land Commissioner
Ray Powell. "This project will provide clean, efficient solar power to El
Paso Electric service territory customers, and the lease payments could
generate as much as $40 million for state land trust beneficiaries over the
40-year term of the lease." IBM Scientists Create Prototype of Integrated Millimeter-Wave Transceiver for Mobile Communications and Radar Imaging
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 10, 2013...Scientists from IBM have created a SiGe BiCMOS-based prototype of a phased-array transceiver with the millimeter-wave components for both high data-rate communications and advanced-resolution radar imaging applications. IBM says that the newly demonstrated integrated circuits (ICs) allow radar-imaging technology to be scaled down to the size of a computer laptop so pilots can penetrate fog, dust and other vision impairing obstructions.
IBM says that the complete solution including antennas, packaging, and transceiver ICs, transforms signals between millimeter-wave and baseband in a form factor smaller than an American nickel. Because of its short wavelength, relatively low atmospheric attenuation, and ability to penetrate debris IBM says that the ICs are well suited for high-resolution radar imaging applications.
The packaged transceiver operates at frequencies of 90-94GHz. It is implemented as a unit tile, integrating four phased array ICs and 64 dual-polarized antennas. IBM notes that tiling packages next to one another on a circuit board enables the creation of scalable phased arrays of large aperture with uniform antenna element spacing. The beamforming from the hundreds of antenna elements will reportedly allow communications and radar imaging applications to extend over a range of kilometers.
Each of the four phased-array ICs in a tile integrates 32 receive and 16 transmit elements with dual outputs to support 16 dual polarized antennas. It supports multiple operating modes including the simultaneous reception of horizontal and vertical polarizations, and it integrates frequency synthesis, conversion, and digital control functions. Nothrrop Grumman Corporation Releases GaN-based PA
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 10, 2013...Northrop Grumman Corporation of Redondo Beach, California USA has developed
a new gallium nitride (GaN) flange packaged power amplifier (PA), APN180FP. The
PA is aimed at military and commercial Ka-band satellite communication terminal
and the commercial wireless infrastructure markets. According to the Northrop
Grumman, the product is the company's first commercially available packaged,
GaN-based component.
The APN180FP is a 0.2 mm GaN HEMT MMIC power amplifier chip mounted in a
flange mount package. The PA operates at between 27 and 31 GHz and is optimized
for operation between 29-31 GHz. It has a drain voltage of +28V and provides 21
dB of linear gain, +37 dBm (5.0 W) of output power at 1 dB gain compression and
+39 dBm (8 W) in saturation with Power Added Efficiency (PAE) of 26 percent at
midband. For less-demanding applications, the company says that the APN180FP
can be operated from a drain voltage as low as +20V while still producing +37
dBm (5 W) of saturated output power.
"It's based on MMICs using Northrop Grumman's 0.2um GaN HEMT process
developed partially under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Wide
Band Gap Semiconductors for Radio Frequency program," said Frank
Kropschot, general manager of the Microelectronics Products and Services
business unit of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. Kropschot indicated that
initial engineering evaluation sampling of prototypes is underway, and
preproduction quantities will be available later this summer. Freescale’s RF Business Commits to U.S.-Based Aerospace and Defense Market
CompoundSemi News StaffJune 10, 2013...Freescale Semiconductor of Seattle, Washington USA, has created a new business unit focused on RF power and RF microwave devices for the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) markets. Freescale will add new gallium nitride (GaN) RF transistor products to support the A&D market. The company also plans to leverage its more than 400 LDMOS RF power transistor and gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) products in the market.
The company says its Airfast™ LDMOS devices provide high linearity, broad instantaneous bandwidth and advanced plastic packaging in products that have been “ruggedized” for commercial applications.
According to Freescale, they can operate into extreme load mismatches (VSWR) greater than 65:1 and offer enhanced protection from electrostatic discharge (ESD). The company’s LDMOS devices span frequency ranges to more than 3 GHz with RF power outputs to 1250 W.
The company’s GaAs MMIC devices reportedly cover applications to over 5 GHz and include gain block amplifiers, power amplifiers (up to 4 W), and low-noise amplifiers with noise figures as low as 0.35 dB. Freescale’s first GaN RF power transistors are planned for availability in late 2013. Freescale says that new products purchased for use in A&D applications are planned for inclusion in its Longevity Program, with assured supply for 15 years.
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