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Welcome to the Opto, Wireless and Other Communications channel!

CompoundSemi Online serves the information needs of the compound semiconductor industry and its supply chain with product and market news updates for this rapidly evolving technology. Our "all the news on one page" format, with select channels for specific interests, offer the most efficient news delivery approach in the industry.

If you're looking for LED or Solid State Lighting News...

You're darn right they're part of the compounds, but we're also proud to say that the LED segment has "graduated" and can benefit from publications that are more dedicated to those topics. For news on the broad LED industry, outside of general lighting, along with the materials and technology supply chain, visit LIGHTimes Online. For a higher level view of LEDs in general lighting, you can visit Solid State Lighting Design, which covers packaged "lighting quality" LEDs through subsystems, luminaires and application stories.

Strategy Analytics: LED Demand for Cell Phone Flashes to Increase
LIGHTimes Staff

May 9, 2007...Revenues derived from LEDs used in cellular handsets will decline overall through 2011, Strategy Analytics says. However, the company predicts that the use of LEDs in cell phone flashes will grow at a CAAGR of 23 percent through 2011. Strategy Analytics predicts that 63 percent of LED revenues from LEDs going into cell phones will come from backlighting handset screens and button panels. Strategy Analytics predicts that continuing pressure on ASPs will mean that overall revenues from backlighting applications will drop from $1.30 billion in 2006 to just over $984 million in 2011. “By 2011, 82 percent of all handsets shipped will include a camera,” commented Asif Anwar, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs service.

“This will drive LED demand for the camera flash function, which will be the only growth market for LED manufacturers--especially as the standard resolution for camera phones will feature 2 megapixel (Mpx) and above. 2Mpx and higher resolutions will feature in 68 percent of all camera phones shipped in 2011 driving LED flash demand,” noted Stuart Robinson, Director of Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies (HCT) service. Other applications such as indicators for Bluetooth functionality and call alert personalization will call for more LEDs as more phones are made with those features. Strategy Analytics predicts however that in those cases, the commodity pricing will offset volume demand. Company News Release

Rensselaer Researchers Create Anti-Reflective Material for More Efficient Solar Cells or LEDs
LIGHTimes Staff

March 1, 2007...A report, which will appear in the March issue of Nature Photonics, explains how researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a special material that reflects virtually no light. The research could lead to brighter LEDs, more efficient solar cells, and a new class of “smart” light sources that adjust to the environment. The material the researchers created is an order of magnitude less reflective than what was previously the least reflective material. In fact the researchers say that it has almost the same refractive index as air. The refractive index is a fundamental optical property of a material. It governs the amount of light a material reflects, as well as other optical properties such as diffraction, refraction, and the speed of light inside the material. The material they created has refractive index of 1.05. As a comparison, window glass reportedly has a refractive index of 1.45. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

Joint Ventures, Mergers, and Acqusitions Prevalent in CS Sector in Q3 2006, Strategy Analytics Says
CompoundSemi News Staff

November 8, 2006...Strategy Analytics released its regular annalysis of compound semiconductor news. Strategy Analytics (SA) noted that during the third quarter of 2006, several important joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions dominate the landscape of the compound semiconductor industry in both the RF and LED markets. Among the mergers, in mid September, Freescale Semiconductor of Austin, Texas USA, a semiconductor company which does some work with the compounds in wireless components, agreed to be acquired by a private equity consortium in a transaction valued at $17.6 billion. According to SA, Freescale has become a private equity company like Avago and NXP. (Ref: Sept. News Release). Additionally Jazz Semiconductor merged with a wholly owned subsidiary Acquicor Technology Incorporated.

“The increased merger and acquisition activity surrounding companies active in the RF industry underlines the continued strength of the RF markets,” noted Stephen Entwistle, VP of the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice. “The appetite of private equity firms for companies such as Freescale underlines strong performance as a result of healthy demand from end markets.” Strategy Analytics News Release

Nu Horizons to Distribute Osram Opto Products Throughout North America
LIGHTimes Staff

October 4, 2006...Nu Horizons Corp. and Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc. have reportedly signed a partnership agreement in which Nu Horizons will distribute Osram’s optoelectronic products throughout North America. These include: Osram’s LEDs, silicon photo detectors, optical sensors, infrared emitters, high-power laser diodes, organic LEDs (OLEDs), and intelligent display products. Nu Horizons is a global distributor of advanced semiconductors and display systems solutions. It has sales facilities in 49 locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

IQE Completes Acquisition of Emcore's Epi Business
CompoundSemi News Staff

August 21, 2006...IQE reports completing the acquisition of Emcore’s US epi foundry business, called the Electronic Materials Division (EMD). The acquisition was completed after shareholders approved the settlement of funds with Emcore. The acquisition cost a total of $16 million with 13 million of it in cash and $3 million in financing at 7.5 percent annual interest rate to be paid in equal payments in each of next four fiscal quarters. Emcore says it expects $9 to $11 million profit from the sale.

The IQE says the acquisition positions it as the leading global outsource supplier of wireless components including: pseudomprphic high electron mobility transistors (PHEMTs), heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), integrated bipolar field effect transistors (BiFETs) and gallium nitride (GaN) technologies. IQE’s Directors believe that the new customer base and the new product offerings will help increase revenues. IQE now boasts the largest production capacity epi foundry in the industry.

Dr Drew Nelson, President & CEO of IQE plc commented, “We are very happy to have completed this acquisition, which represents a key step forward in IQE’s development as the leading outsource wafer supplier worldwide to the global semiconductor industry. The joining of the two companies allows IQE to offer a truly one stop wafer outsource service to its customers, with a complete range of current and next generation products. This transaction assures EMD’s current customers that as part of a larger wafer outsource group all the necessary resources are in place to fully support the joint customer base as their wafer demands continue to grow.” IQE News Release IQE’s products reportedly include components used in wireless infrastructure, optical communications, optical storage (CD, DVD), laser optical mouse, laser printers & photocopiers, thermal imagers, leading edge medical products, barcode, high efficiency LEDs and a variety of advanced silicon based systems.

Si-Light Receives $280,000 in Seed Funding

August 14, 2006...Si-Light Technologies Ltd., a company based in London, UK, which hopes to develop silicon-based LEDs for optoelectronic applications, has received $280,000 in seed funding from the Cascade Fund Co. Si-Light is reportedly a spin-off from the University of Surrey. The co-founders, Russell Gwillam and Guosheng Shao are joint inventors of the company's dislocation engineering technology. Kevin Arthur, chief executive officer of Si-Light, said the latest round of funding would be used to develop a good business plan to present to venture capital companies later this year. John Read, the company chairman, said the money would also help Si-Light to expand its demonstration capability. LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

Selling Prices Fall for Handset-Use LEDs Made by Taiwan Companies

July 25, 2006...Despite the fact that Strategy Analytics recently reported strong but slower growth in the worldwide handset market (ref: coverage), the average selling price (ASP) of surface mounted LEDs produced in Taiwan and used in handsets has fallen more than 20 percent since the beginning of the year, according to Digitimes. Harvatek reported that their average selling price for SMD LEDs declined by 30 percent. Other companies were hit harder by the selling price decline. LED maker, Formosa Epitaxy's ASP for handset-use LEDs is down by 50 percent. The Digitimes article cites increased production capacity industry wide as one of the major causes of the price decline.

Strategy Analytics Finds Strong but Slower Growth in Handset Sales
Scott McMahan

July 20, 2006...Stategy Analytics reports that mobile phone shipments have had a healthy increase of 26 percent year-over-year to reach 235 million units in Q2 2006. Nokia and Motorola reportedly dominated with a record 55 percent of combined share of the total units produced. The results are detailed in Strategy Analytics’ newly published "Q2 2006 Global Handset Market Share Update" report. The strong continuing growth is good news for both the compound semi and SSL companies whose products are in handsets.

In May, IQE, a compound semiconductor company, said that it expects mobile handsets to drive growth of the company’s gallium arsenide materials (Ref: May 30 Coverage). Strategy Analytics also predicted growth in the GaAs market, much of which is based largely on handset sales. (Ref: April 6 Article). Handset sales growth will likely continue to drive growth at IQE after the acquisition of Emcore’s Epiwafer Manufacturing Division (EMD). Other companies such as RFMD which relies heavily on handset sales recently announced capacity increases. (Ref: June 6 News). So overall CS companies seem optimistic about handset sales and have acted accordingly. Strategy Analytics News Release LIGHTimes SecondPage members login for more. Guests can view membership details.

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