News update

News update

News Update Markets & Business Markets & Business According to the report Predictions 2ool IDC (International Data Corp #23643, January 200t), more...

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News Update

Markets & Business

Markets & Business

According to the report Predictions 2ool IDC (International Data Corp #23643, January 200t), more than 6oom mobile phones will be in use worldwide by the end of 2ool, exceeding the number of PCs for the first time.

Cell-phone sales estimates cut again to 405-415m for 2000; 500-575m in 2001 Nokia says its cell-phone sales

Ericsson sold 11.8m p h o n e s In

Internet-enabled handsets was

were more than 128m in 2000

Q4/2000 and 43.3m in 2000

about 6 0 m in 2000 (40m WAP-

(64% u p on 1999's 78.5m), and

(up 38% on '99), claiming just

enabled), rising to 200m in 2001

claims an increased market share

over 10% of a 405-415m market

(180m WAP-enabled). Ericsson

of 32% out of a total 405m

(down on its previous estimate

says the n u m b e r of WAP p h o n e s

(45% up on 1999's 280m).

of 420m). Ericsson expects

in use rose from 3m to 26m

But this is less than the 135m

sales of 500-540m in 2001.

from August to December 2000.

However, Siemens (up from

* Reflecting "continuing

and 420m expected (blamed on December's "sharp slowdown in the US"), leading to Nokia's share

"Wireless Dota N e t w o r k i n g 2000" from Allied

price falling several percent.

B u s i n e s s Intelligence Inc, there

(Dataquest reckons on 44% unit

will be nearly a.3bn wireless subscribers on 2G and 3G systems by 2oo5, including over 5oom data subscribers using truncated and actual Internet access. The replacement rate for handsets will be over 6o% from 2002-2006. Also, one third of laptop users will have true wireless Internet access by 2oo5. PDAs will be used for truncated data services, with three quarters accessing rewritten Internet content by 2oo5.

market growth in 2000, com-

According

to

Cahners In-Stat Group forecasts that overall semiconductor revenue from wireless handsets will grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 40% through 2oo4 to over US$53bn.

pared to an expected 75%.)

eighth to the fourth-biggest cell-

changes in the c o m m u n i c a t i o n s

p h o n e maker over the last two

markets, further inventory cor-

years) is not altering its forecast

rections at major customers,

of a 100% increase in its sales in

and a slower than expected vol-

2000 (selling 24m in the first

u m e production ramp of newly

nine months) and expects con-

introduced HBT p o w e r amplifi-

tinued 20-25% market growth

er products", sales for ANADIG-

casts for Q1/2001 sales to 25-30%

over the next three years since

ICS Inc (Warren, NJ, USA) will

(from December's 30%) and for

it is "too early to talk a b o u t

he lower than expected:

unit sales to 500-550m in 2001

saturation", according to Rudi

US$3 l m for Q4/2000 and

(from 550m). However, it has not

Lamprecht, head of the mobile

US$181m for full-year 2000.

changed its D e c e m b e r forecast

p h o n e unit.

Expectations are for Q1/2001

Nokia has n o w lowered its fore-

of 25-35% sales growth for 2001.

The subscriber base was over

Nolda's market share in 2000 was

700m at end-2000, says Nokia

almost twice Motorola's, which

(i.e. global penetration of 12%)

expects Q4/20OO sales for its

and will be l b n by first-half 2002

Personal Commtmications

(rather than end-2002). Ericsson

Segment of US$2.9bn (down

estimates 700-715m in 2000,

20% on '99, especially in Western

rising to 920-950m in 2001.

Europe where cell-phone penetration rates are n o w 50-70%). In January Motorola revised its

sales of just US$34m but t h e n a resumption of strong growth in second-half 2001 (with CDMA HBT PA module orders from several Asian customers expected to generate 50% of wireless revenues, also aided by design wins last year for GSM InGaP

In 2000 40-50% of Nolda's buy-

HBT PA modules, as well as the

ers were upgrading their exist-

PicoqMner - a n n o u n c e d last October - entering production).

693

The broadband business "remains strong" with 35% growth expected in 2001, driven by design wins last year in cable

Strategies Unlimited predicts that demand for GaAs chips will rise from about US$3.6bn in 2ooo to US$4.3bn in 2oot, and US$4.8bn in 2002.

modem, set-top box, and cable infrastructure products, as well as production ramp of 10 Gb/s OC-192 and launch of 40 Gb/s 0 0 7 6 8 fibre-optic products.

According to Stephen Entwistle of Strategy Analytics (Luton, UK), in thousands of square inches, the merchant and captive market for GaAs epiwafers is due to rise from 3,o8o in 1999 to 12,871 in 2oo4.

* Taiwanese LED p r o d u c e r Everlight Electronics reported falling sales in Q4/2000 due to 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 19992000 2001 2002 i

"the slowing cell-phone market", i

Estimate *Net subscriber addition and replacement sales

deciding to cancel issuing NT$150m in stock. (LED sales also fell for Opto Tech.)

sales forecasts of December downwards from 420m to 41Om for 2000 (due to the

4

ing phones, but for s u b s e q u e n t

Everlight expects another 10%

years the replacement market

drop in Q1/2001 (the slow sea-

will rise to 70-80%.Also, Nokia

son for LED sales) but will use

"industry p e a k i n g in Q 3 / 2 0 0 0 a n d n o w facing an inventory correcO'on'9 and to nearer the

n o w reckons there will be

convertible bonds to raise the

low end of 525-575m for 2001.

more web-connected handsets

capital n e e d e d to purchase n e w

than PCs as early as 2002, rather

machinery, and may reapply for

than 2003.The market for

another round of fundraising.

III-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL 14 - NO I - JAN/FEB 2oot

Technology: Microetectronics

News Update

Motorola's Semiconductor

-30 dBc, and alternate adjacent

3.5 GHz (S-band), lOW, 12V,

Products Sector (Austin,TX,

channel p o w e r of-48 dBc.Also,

GaAs discrete transistor for use

RFMD product launches

USA) has c o m p l e t e d qualifica-

a high Schottky turn-on voltage

as a driver stage in a Broadband

RF Micro Devices Inc

tion of its true enhancement-

of + l . 8 V at 1 m A / m m (com-

Wireless Local Loop (BWLL)

(Greensboro, NC, USA) is n o w

m o d e @-mode) single-power-

pared to +0.8 V for a compara-

base-station amplifier.

shipping its RF2173 GaAs HBT

supply pHEMT GaAs process

ble depletion-mode or near-

"We are looking to expand our

p o w e r amplifier (designed for

(for use in transmitter and

zero threshold pHEMT device)

product portfolio with pHEMT

use in the final RF amplifier in

receiver circuits in low-voltage

is desirable for p o w e r ampli-

800-950 MHz GSM hand-held

portable wireless applications).

fiers to raise the output p o w e r

technology at higher frequencies to serve applications out-

digital cellular equipment) for

Motorola qualifies E-mode single-supply pHEMTs

"Single-supply power amplifiers have b e c o m e the n e w paradigm in portable p h o n e handsets due to the recent availabili-

capability of the device, while reducing the a m o u n t of gate current developed u n d e r high RF drive levels.

side the traditional

Motorola's Talkabout T900 two-

cellular/PCS/3G infrastructure

way data pager.

markets," said LyneUe McKay,

Also, recent RFMD product

RF Device Operations Manager

launches include:

ty of near-zero threshold volt-

At 900 MHz, a single-stage

for the Wireless Infrastructure

age pHEMT and HBT technolo-

amplifier achieved a noise fig-

Systems Division.

gies", says Jim Oakland, manag-

ure of 1.2 dB with an associat-

• Three n e w 2.7-3.3V GaAs HBT linear variable gain driver

ed gain of 18.5 dB.

Production orders will be

er of design and technology for the Wireless Transmitter

amplifiers: - the 800-1000 MHz RF2376, for TDMA and CDMA cellular and

Solutions Division. "E-mode GaAs technology helps to reduce the cost and size of the

accepted in April.

First products (from Motorola's CS-1 6" fab inTempe,AZ, USA) are available from February.

Additional pHEMT products in development include higherp o w e r transistors for BWLL at

end-product by eliminating

* Motorola has developed the

3.5 GHz and a high-perform-

both the negative voltage gen-

MRFG35010, an u n m a t c h e d

ance broadband IC for MMDS.

PCS systems, and the 800-2100 MHz RF2377 and

-

RF2381, forTDMA and CDMA, as well as the first W-CDMA handsets, due to be launched in

erator and [due to its low off-

mid-2001. (The RF2377 and

state leakage current] the drain-

RF2381 were previously

supply switch [needed for

launched in February 2000 as part of a complete single-mode

depletion-mode pHEMT and MESFET devices] within the

chipset w h i c h also included SiGe and BiCMOS technology).

handset p o w e r amplifier section, as well as eliminating addi-

• The product development

tional passive components".

alliance a n n o u n c e d in February A three-stage p o w e r amplifier for 1900 MHzTDMA has deliv-

2000 b e t w e e n RFMD and QUALCOMM Inc's QUALCOMM

ered +30 dBm output power,

CDMA Technologies division

42% power-added efficiency, adjacent channel p o w e r of

Motorola's 3.5 GHz GaAs discrete for BWLL base-station ampfifiers.

Wireless dip drives Kopin's opto push To help accelerate development

* Kopin's sales for Q3/2000 were

Networks (e.g. for 10 Gb/s O 0

and commercialisation of the

192 SONET chipsets).

products of its n e w Optical

us$23.83m (up 145% on Q3/99, but d o w n 3% on Q2/2OOO).This

Communication Products Group,

includes GaAs products w o r t h

HBT wafer supplier Kopin Corp

US$17.93m (up 133% on Q3/99,

Kopin was expecting growth to resume in Q1/2001.

has yielded a second product (after the PA3 l O0).The PA3300 series is QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies' second generation of p o w e r amplifier modules, made by RFMD using its GaAs HBT process. * RFMD has o p e n e d a n e w engineering design centre in Pandrup, Denmark, drawing on talent from the nearby

but d o w n 8% on Q2/2000).

* Kopin has b e e n added to

University of Aalborg.The initial

(for about US$25m in stock)

However, despite the softness

Standard & Poor's SmallCap

focus will be on high-efficiency

the opto materials and device

in the wireless handset market,

600 Index.

p o w e r amplifiers for digital cel-

R&D c o m p a n y Super Epitaxial

Kopin said it continued to see

* Kopin's n e w fab i n T a u n t o n

lular systems, but will expand

Products Inc (Columbia, MD,

strong d e m a n d for HBTs for

was due to be u p and running

to include RF ASIC designs for

USA). Founded in 1997, Super

opt oelectronic-driving

by end-2000.

RFMD's "Total Radio" project.

Epi has demonstrated MOCVD

microlectronic devices from

growth of nitrides.

c u s t o m e r s such as Nortel

Kopin Corp Tel: +1-508-824-6696

RF Micro Devices Tel: +1-336-664-1233

(Taunton, MA, USA) has acquired

IIl-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOLt4 - NO ~ - JAN/FEB 2004.

B

\Vhen it comes down to it, what do you really want from high volume epitaxy equipment? You want to get the largest number of shippable wafers at the lowest possible cost. At VG Semicon we know that better than anyone. Our V100 system is the industry standard for H B T and P H E M T technology. So when it comes to finding ways to improve yield, nobody does it better than us. That's why you'll find our V150 system full of features that ensure you more throughput, higher yield and at the same time save you mone}:

Our V100 is the most successful MBE product in the history of MBE technoloD: It enabled a generation of P H E M T and H B T based devices, which have found wide use in a variety of wireless products. VVhen it came to developing the next standard in production MBE equipment the industry looked to us and we had a choice: simply scale up the V100 or evolve the technologT to provldP ~;gnificant enhancements to benefit our customers. We chose the latter. The V150 was developed by the same team of engineers who designed the V100 so we had a good starting point. Our aim was to increase throughput by scaling the system geometry, reduce downtime by increasing reliability, decrease turn round time and increase productivity by making the process more stable. So what does this mean in technological terms?

The VI00 already has a reputation of being the fastest production MBE system to install. With this in mind, we designed the V150 so it can be up and running in less than a third of the time needed for competitive systems. Part of this is due to the highly efficient bake system used by all VG Semicon products. The V150 has a bakeout enclosure that surrounds the whole system so it can be quickly and efficiently baked at 200°C with no cold spots. Our competitors cannot fully bake their systems. They use a makeshift collection of inefficient flexible bakeout covers, tapes and foil coverings. Since any bake is only as good as the coldest part of the system, you'll probably be amazed to hear that parts of their systems are never heated. It's no wonder they take three times longer to bake than the V150.

MBE system turn round involves venting the system, cleaning the deposition chamber, reloading source material, pumping down and baking. With a reliable system it doesn't have to be done too often, but minimizing the time taken is still vital for improving system throughput. VG Semicon's unique and exclusive chamber seal technology means the V150 is the first production MBE system ever that allows easy removal of the entire source assembly. This gives you unprecedented access to the entire source a r e a and growth chamber walls, for faster source replenishment and easy clean up.

Our competitors, on the other hand, rely on individual source replenishment and awkward chamber clean up through small ports. With reloading and cleaning done in a fraction of the usual time, the V150 source flange is simply re-attached and the chamber pumped down - no time-consuming and complicated bolt sequence to worry about. Combine this with the V150's rapid bake and its no wonder the V150 can be turned around in 30% of the time it takes our competition. In a high volume application this can increase overall productivity by more than 10%!

Open conical sources of Ga and In suffer from variation in flux over time. Simply stated, the flux drops because of material depletion as the source is used. For standard MBE processing this predictable behavior necessitates routine recalibration to ensure constant growth rates. VG Semicon's ThermoCell T M range was designed to dramatically reduce the requirements for calibration. In fact our Ga ThermoCell TM is ten times more stable than our competitors' conical cell design and it virtually eliminates shutter-related flux transients. The V150 is designed to be more reliable, more stable and more productive than any other system on the market. It's no wonder we're market leaders. We're making the engineering choices to ensure that you're ahead of the game. INI!~III

USA Japan France Korea Taiwan Benelux

The MBE Company ~G SEMICON IS A THERMO ELECTRON COMPANY. RES NO. 104 - USE THE FAST N F W ENC)IIIRY qF::R\/ICF (~ w w w t h r ~ - f i w ~ c r ~ m

News Update

Technology: Microelectronics

Taiwanese GaAs foundry fabs going through start up

Celeritek to outsource Financial results for Celeritek Inc (Santa Clara, CA, USA) for fiscal Q3/2001 (to endDecember) were:

In November the "world's first

a n d MBE systems. Procomp

pure-play 6" GaAs MMIC

currently has 8 MBE systems

Series plasma etch system, for

foundry" WIN Semiconductors

(7 for mass production and one

processing GaAs and InP for

• Sales - US$24.3m (up 105%

Corp (Talpei,Taiwan) - w h i c h

for R&D) and 8 MOCVD systems

wireless telecoms (due for

was founded only in October

(with a capacity of 10,000 wafers

installation in January); and

on Q3/2000 but just 5% on Q2/2001 ): semiconductors

1999 - successfully completed

p e r month). But by end-2001

processing of Asia's first 6" 2 ~rn

Procomp will have 16 MOCVD

• GCS subsidiary Global

US$13m (up 12% on Q2/2001); sub-systems US$8m (up 4%);

InGaP HBT MMIC and 0.5 lam

and 14 MBE systems (bringing

pHEMT wafers (just two m o n t h s

capacity to 20,000 wafers per

after installation of processing

month, and p e r h a p s 30,000

equipment).WIN is also the only c o m p a n y in Taiwan that can offer backside processing of GaAs wafers to 100/Lrn. Volume production will start in Q1/2001 (with production orders to be accepted in March). WIN was also expecting to pro-

once better yields are achieved).

Series etch system and a 900

Communication Technology Corp for a 901G diode plasma

defence US$3.3m (down 15%).

etch system, specially config-



ured for nitride applications to

ing over US$ l m for its newly

Orders - US$28.7m, includ-

produce GaAs telecoms ICs in

introduced fibre products (e.g.

Procomp also plans to use

its 6" GaAs fab (for installation

NT$4.32bn raised last June for further capacity expansion over

in February).

from Vitesse Semiconductor Corp for a driver amplifier for

the n e x t two years. GaAs wafer revenues should rise 150% this year to more than 30% of Procomp's total revenues.

* Hsinchu-based RF IC design

h o u s e Himark Technology has o p e n e d facilities for pager ICs, wireless data and c o n s u m e r ICs,

use in external fibre-optic modulators) and US$2.6m in increased production orders for InGaP HBT modules.

and wireless communication ICs.

Celeritek has added more semi-

in Q1/2001 and 1/am HBTs

Himark plans to launch a p o w e r

later this year.

amplifier for GSM and CDMA

c o n d u c t o r test capacity, and its fab expansion should be on-

mobile p h o n e s in Q1/20Ol,"in

line by the end of this quarter.

sync withTalwan's n e w GaAs wafer supply"). Himark esti-

But, to secure increased capacity Celeritek, is to outsource

mates revenues for 2000 at

s o m e of its foundry work

NT$100m and expects 300%

through investing about US$2.4m in Suntek C o m p o u n d

duce 0.35 and 0.15 ~trn pHEMTs

Estimating total global annual GaAs MMIC output at 200,000250,000 6" equivalent wafers (rising in the n e x t 4-5 years to l m p e r year),wiN plans to pro-

growth to NT$300m in 2001.

duce m o r e than 10,000 6" wafers in 2001 and 30,000 in 2002, rising to the m a x i m u m capacity of 100,000 wafers per year in 2004. The global HBT MMIC market is estimated to be about

Procomp Informatic's new No. 3 fab, which has now started production. Procomp says it ranks fourth behind IQE (Newport, UK), Hitachi Cable (Japan) and Kopin (USA). But- aiming to be the world's number-1 GaAs epiwafer

US$2bn (growing more than

supplier by 2003 - has partnered

30% a year) so WIN expects its

with some key companies in the

sales to exceed US$500m p e r

USA and Japan to bring in CcaAs

year.

production management and

* GaAs MESFET, PHEMT a n d

process technologies.

HBT wafer foundry Procomp

* Tegal Corp (Petaluma, CA,

Informatics has b e g u n produc-

USA) has received orders from

tion at its No. 3 fab in Hsinchu,

two Hsinchu-based foundries:

Taiwan (pictured). Occupying 1.67 hectares of land, it can a c c o m m o d a t e 50-60 MOCVD

• C o m p o u n d Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, for a 6500

*To expand its Epitaxial

Semiconductor Co Ltd, a pure-

Services business into Asia,

play GaAs fotmdry being con-

ATMI Inc (Danbury, CT, USA) is

structed in Taiwan (to be in production in 18-24 months).

building a Taiwan-based facility. James Huang (formerly of MEMC

Celeritek is also qualifying two

Electronic Materials Inc) is vice

more contract manufacturers to

president Asian Operations.

increase module assembly and

ATMI has been qualifying wafers

test capacity for subsystems.

for Taiwan c u s t o m e r s at its service facility in Mesa,AZ, USA.

* Celeritek has launched the CMM3566-LW-CDMA 7 V linear

According to ATMI Services

p o w e r amplifier for use in sub-

president Phil Yin, "Taiwan's

scriber units and basestations for wireless data transmission

major [silicon]foundries are expanding tbeir product focus beyond older CMOS...for bipolar, BiCMOS, SiGe, and GaAsbased applications".

at 3.45-3.5 GHz (manufactured in a miniature, 4 m m x 4 m m , leadless chip carrier package). C e l e r i t e k Inc. Tel: +1 4 0 8 - 9 8 6 - 5 0 6 0

UEC launches 6" InGaP epi-wafers for HBTs; developing pHEMTs United Epitaxy C o m p a n y Ltd (Hsinchu,Taiwan) is n o w offering both 6" and 4" InGaP HBT epi-wafers. A structure with a base sheet

8

resistance of 188 ~ has a DC current gain of 135 (for emitter size = 75 ~rn x 75 lam).The carbon-doped base layer has doping u p to 6xlO 19 p e r c m 3 and typical uniformity of u n d e r 2%.

The non-alloyed contact resistance (Ti/Pt/Au) can be as low as high 10-8 to low 10-7~~/121...

epi fab over the next 3 months. However, UEC is also developing InGaP pHEMT epi-wafers.

Several m o r e MOCVD systems will be installed in UEC's HBT

III-V$ REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL a4 - NO t - JAN/FEB 2oot

UEC Tel: + 8 8 6 - 3 - 5 6 7 8 0 0 0

Technology: Microelectronics

Alpha's multi-chip integration platform for RF components To reduce system design complexity and improve time-to-

a n d help them to reduce the

° Under a n e w global sourcing alliance with the "world's

market,Alpha Industries Inc (Woburn, MA, USA) has

n u m b e r o f passive a n d active components" said president and CEO David Aldrich. aiIP

leading end-to-end networking solutions provider",Alpha

launched its Alpha Integration

will enable migration from

Industries is shipping produc-

Platform.The aiIP is a manufac-

their traditional reliance on

tion volumes of GaAs MMIC

turing, packaging and design

customised solutions for every

and RF wireless and broad-

technique which integrates

platform toward re-use of existing designs.

band semiconductor products for fixed wireless and WLAN

its HBT, PHEMT and RF discretes with other RF components in a single module-based platform. New products include complete amplifier solutions and switch/filter modules. Alpha also has a roadmap for full integration of the RF frontend."The leading OEMs in wireless a n d broadband are seeking partners who can supply more o f the RF content

*Alpha's recent orders include: ° A high-volume production order for its first product to be designed into a Sony wireless handset (RF ICs for next-generation handsets combining voice, data and wireless Internet access) - part of a strategy to diversift its wireless OEM customer base.

high-speed Internet access (via 2.4 GHz, LMDS, MMDS and UNII access technologies). The market for broadband fixed wireless is expected to grow from US$1.7bn in 1999 to US$16bn in 2005, according to research firm Ovum Inc (Burlington, MA, USA). A l p h a Industries Inc Tel: +1-781-935-5150

High-temperature electrostatic chuck for opto applications Trikon Technologies Inc

clamp c o m p o u n d semiconduc-

*Trikon's Q3/2000 sales were

(Newport, UK) has launched a high-temperature electrostatic

tor wafers for hot processes, leading to slower plasma etch

us$31.5m (up 23% on Q2/2000

chuck for plasma etching com-

processes and limited choices of etch chemistries. Up until

pounds for opto applications. "Accurate temperature control during plasma etching of comp o u n d wafers is critical", said John Macneil, vp of Technology. "Most electrostatic chucks cannot effectively

n o w the only alternative was mechanical clamping, but this introduces particulates and causes wafer breakage, dramatically reducing yields and throughput."

and 139% on Q3/99).

News Updat(

Technology: M ic roelect ro n ics Hittite Microwave Corp (Chelmsford, MA, USA) has received US$15m in funding from equity investor Summit Partners (Boston, MA, USA), enabling it to continue expansion of its GaAs MMIC design and manufacturing capabilities.

At last November's Electronica exhibition in Munich, Filtronic PIc's subsidiary Filtronic Compound Semiconductors Ltd launched its first range of commercial products from its 6" GaAs fab in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, U K. The 3 V FSL 1244 double-throw and FSL 1444 four-throw low-loss single-pole and the FSH 1244 high-isolation single-pole doublethrow MMIC switches (for GSM mobile handsets and basestations) are the result ofa t2-month collaborative project between UK, US and Finnish engineers.

Conexant Systems Inc (Newport Beach, CA, USA) has launched its first tri-band power amplifier line, the GaAs-based CX77~o2 for handsets for bolh GSM (88o-915, 171o-w85 and 19~o-195o MHz) and GPRS (Class lO standard).

Trikon estimates that about a third of its year-2000 sales will be to c o m p o u n d semiconductor device manufacturers (including 10% for optoelectronic applications). Trikon Technologies Inc Tel: +44-1633-414111

Record 250 GHz DHBT at IEDM At December's 46th annual IEEE

(see Paper #8.2, "Abrupt

that eliminates a collector-

International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA, a team from Canada's Simon Fraser University detailed an indium phosphide-based

Junction InP/GaAsSb/InP Double Heterostructure

blocking effect that has affected base-collector heterojunction designs for years.

double heterostructure bipolar transistor structure that is fast enough for 40 Gb/s fibre systems

Bipolar Transistors With Ft As High As 250 GHz a n d Fmax>2OOGHz With BVceo >6V," by M Dvorak et al). The researchers say that the structure has an abrupt profile

The device has achieved a peak cut-off frequency fT of 250 GHz (claimed to be a record for a double heterostructure design).

III-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL 14 - NO t - JAN/FEB 2ool

1688 JohnWorgon

opens his shop for the sale of mathematical instruments.

1 7 0 3 ~be first telescopic level is created for Sir Isaac Newton.

1714, mechanical model of the solar system, called on "artery" after the Earl of Orrery for whom it was created, is shown to His

1 7 9 5 The equatorial telescope is created for the Rrmagh Observatory.

MajestyGeorgeI.

189

EdwardTroughton refines the dividing engine, an important contribution to the development of astronomical instruments.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON, one of our predecessor's earliest customers, changed the vca7 people understood the laws of physics. Not to be outdone, w e changed our name. Of course, there have been other Sc~erdist. Mathematician. Customer.

changes during our history. Technology has advanced. Our tools

Cat,sidereal

by many to be history's 9reotest scienlist, Newton

studied the noture of light, devised the first reflect n£ telescope, developed calculus, and di~c,~vered the

have evolved. Sir Isaac Newton is found in science books instead of our lobby.

law of universal gravitation after, it. is said, observin£ the fall of on apple

Through it all, we've c o n t i n u e d to provide innovators w i t h t h e tools t h e y need to create, discover, and succeed. Today, we supply both compound P

f~

0 t

0 3

helping

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the

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rapidly growing and

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industries. Like our customers, we have a history of c h a n g i n g things. A legacy based on c o m m i t m e n t , fueled by drive. Built on t h e shoulders of giants.

®2ooo~ll,kg,u~es~.e~.

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RES NO. 105 - USE THE FAST NEW ENQUIRY SERVICE @ www.three-fives.com

1848 A• innovative transit circle is built for the Greenwich Meridian, defining longitude.

1912

Robert Scott reuches the South Pole using the lightweight theodolites for sub-zero conditions created for the British Rntorctic Expedition.

1988 High-precision

measuring apparatuses and loser rongefinders are distributed worldwide.

2M

Bio-RadSemiconductor Systems Division becomes gccent, a global company that supplies process control toots to opt•electronic and semiconductor industries throughout the world.

BIO-RRD SEMICONDUCTOR SYSTEMS D I V I S I O N - FIRS BECOME RCCENT OPTICRL TECHNOLOGIES.



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ACCENT RCCENT OPTICRLTECHNOLOGIES, INC. Chino • France •Germony • I s r o e l •Jopan • Korea Sing•pore • Toiwon • United Kingdom • United Stotes www. accent o p t • . com [email protected]

News Update

Technology: Microelectronics

Technology: M icroelect ro n ics Replacing equipment that only a few years ago needed a box weighing several pounds, TRW (Redondo Beach, CA, USA) is producing a GaAs upconverter (from 200 MHz5 GHz to 18-21 GHz) which weighs just an ounce. It will be used to convert its communication satellite payload signals to Astrolink International LLC's Ka-band downlink frequency of 20 GHz for transmission to Earth in its global broadband telecoms system (to begin service in 2003).

Record-frequency ICs 215 GHz -

At the 2000 GaAs IC Symposium



a three-stage single-ended

"TRW's m a t u r e InP c h i p tech-

in Seattle,WA, USA last N o v e m b e r

165-190 GHz LNA w i t h 14 dB of

n o l o g y p o s i t i o n s u s to d e v e l o p

TRW ( R e d o n d o Beach, CA, USA)

gain a n d a noise figure of 7 dB;

smaller, m o r e sensitive a n d

a n d NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (Pasadena, CA, USA) p r e s e n t e d a n e w family of high-frequency InP ICs w h i c h , t h e y say, p r o m i s e s to "increase data rates, s h r i n k t h e

• A new family of GaAs linear down-conversion mixer ICs for mobile te/ecoms: the CMY2t2 and the low-power CMY213 version (with an operating current of just 8 mA). The ICs are to be used by Samsung Electronics in both current mobile applications (such as wireless e-mail with a PDA) and future applications in its nextgeneration wireless terminals. • The TSSOP-packaged CGB240 and flipchip-packaged T628 highefficiency InGaP HBT power amplifier for Bluetooth, home RF, WLAN applications (compliant with the IEEE 802A1 standard), operating at four power output step settings for long-range, 1oo m (class 1), and short-range (class 2 and 3) Bluetooth applications.

gain w i t h a m e a s u r e d m o d u l e n o i s e figure of 8 dB at 170 GHz.

m e n t s for r e m o t e s e n s i n g a p p l i c a t i o n s s u c h as radio astronomy and atmospheric s o u n d i n g . T h e c h i p s ' h i g h freq u e n c i e s also e n a b l e h i g h e r

in t h e 70-180 GHz b a n d s w a s

data rates for c o m m e r c i a l wire-

eraUon satellite c o m m u n i c a U o n s

o p e n e d u p b y t h e International

less c o m m u n i c a t i o n s links

and remote sensing payloads".

T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n s U n i o n for

w h i l e t h e i r low-noise figures

future radio, satellite c o m m u n i -

i m p r o v e t h e quality."

Fabricated u s i n g T R W ' s 0.07 ~rn gate HEMT process, t h e low-

cations, radar a n d radio astronom y applications.

* TRW's n e w 4" InP p r o d u c t i o n line ( w h i c h is d u e to start ini-

at 100-215 GHz (the highest-fre-

"High f r e q u e n c y a n d l o w n o i s e

tial p r o d u c t i o n in early 2001 -

q u e n c y IC ever r e p o r t e d ) a n d

are critical p a r a m e t e r s for

s e e Issue 6, p 1 9 ) w i l l include

include:

next-generation telecoms and

t h e FCE-2700A e l e c t r o n - b e a m



a

three-stage, single-ended

112-120 GHz LNA w i t h 15 dB of gain a n d a noise figure of 4-5 dB;

ASM and IHP commercialising SiGe:C ASM America - t h e US subsidiary o f ASM International NV (Bilthoven,The N e t h e r l a n d s ) has

an

exclusive a g r e e m e n t

w i t h t h e I n n o v a t i o n s for High P e r f o r m a n c e Microelectronics institute (Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, G e r m a n y ) to u s e its Epsilon

g e r m a n i u m (SiGe:C - initially d e v e l o p e d b y IHP w i t h

scientific satellite applica-

evaporation system from

tions," said D w i g h t Streit,

T e m e s c a l (Fairfield, CA, USA).

TRW's v p a n d e x e c u t i v e director, A d v a n c e d S e m i c o n d u c t o r s .

production). T h e p r o c e s s allows SiGe:C HBTs to b e integrated into cy BiCMOS.According to IHP's director Professor Abbas

T h e UK g o v e r n m e n t ' s Engin-

* T h e EU's MEDEA p r o j e c t T504

e e r i n g a n d Physical Science R e s e a r c h Council (EPSRC) is e x t e n d i n g its SiGe MOS research

"Mixed radio frequency logic in SiGe BiCMOS f o r 2G and 3G" h a s b e e n c o m p l e t e d .

f u n d i n g t h r o u g h a £ 4 . 3 m grant to a UK c o n s o r t i u m that i n c l u d e s t h e universities

of:

Warwick (under programme m a n a g e r Professor Evan Parker), Cambridge, Glasgow, Imperial College (London), L o u g h b o r o u g h , Newcastle, Sheffield, S o u t h a m p t o n a n d UMIST (Manchester).

d e s i g n m o d u l e s for integration

ASM International Tel: + 3 1 - 3 0 - 2 2 9 8 - 5 4 0

t h e n m a d e to 0.35 ~ m SiGe BiCMOS for 3G applications u p to 12 GHz a n d 2.4 GHz for w i d e b a n d applications. Project p a r t n e r s w e r e Ericsson,

T h e MEDEA Project T555

Technologies, Canada's Mitel

"Advanced Silicon Germanium BiCMOS technologies for RF applications" (ASGRA), w h i c h started in J a n u a r y 1999, fini s h e d last D e c e m b e r .

S e m i c o n d u c t o r s , a n d t h e US EDA software h o u s e Avant!

"factor of two" i m p r o v e m e n t in MOSFET p e r f o r m a n c e by devel-

w i t h existing p r o c e s s designs.

c o m p l e t e d u s i n g 0.35 lain silic o n BiCMOS, so a s w i t c h w a s

Chrysler a n d I n f i n e o n

T h e p r o g r a m m e is s e e k i n g a

well as its suite o f device

integrated RF front-end w a s

STMicroelectronics, GRESSI, KTH and t h e University of Pavia.

O u r m a z d , ASM's SiGe cus-

BiCMOS p r o t o t y p i n g service as

At t h e e n d o f 1998 (just t w o years into t h e project) a 1-5 GHz

Industrial c o n t r i b u t i o n s c o m e f r o m G e r m a n y ' s Daimler-

t o m e r s will be able to obtain a c c e s s to IHP's 0.25 ~rn SiGe:C

T R W Inc Tel: + 1 - 3 1 0 - 8 1 4 - 8 1 7 7

European silicon-germanium research funding

Motorola a n d s i n c e p u t into

CMOS, e n a b l i n g higher-frequen-

Ig

215 GHz LNA w i t h 15-27 dB of

m o r e p o w e r - e f f i c i e n t instru-

formance capabilities of next-gen-

t a x y of c a r b o n - d o p e d silicon

Isonics Corp (Golden, CO, USA) and organometallic producer Epichem Inc (Allentown, PA, USA) have announced a two-year Joint Development Program to demonstrate cost-effective isotope separation techniques for gallium compounds and determine the benefits of higher thermal conductivity on GaAs, GaN, and GaP based devices.

six-stage, single-ended 160-

Last April f r e q u e n c y s p e c t r u m

r e a c t o r to c o m m e r c i a l i s e epi-

In-line spectrophotometric thin-film characterisation and analysis tool manufacturer n&k Technology Inc (San jose, CA, USA) has received orders of more than US$2.4m from three undisclosed customers, mainly for GaAs RF tC manufacture.

a

size a n d increase t h e overall per-

noise amplifier MMICs o p e r a t e

Latest Infineon Technologies' product launches include:



* T h e 4-year MEDEA (Microelec-

o p i n g n e w d e s i g n s o f t h e MOSFET vertical architecture w h i c h

tronics D e v e l o p m e n t for Europ e a n Applications) p r o g r a m m e

are resilient to a n d c o m p a t i b l e w i t h t h e prevailing p r o c e s s e s , allowing SiGe MOS d e v i c e s to be fully integrated.

finished at t h e e n d of 2000 a n d h a s b e e n s u p e r s e d e d by t h e 8year MEDEA+ p r o g r a m m e (in t w o p h a s e s of 4 years).

III-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL t4 - NO 2 - JAN/FEB 200,

Technology: Microelectronics

Lucent making SiGe & GaAs ICs for 10 Gb/s OC-192 SONET data-rates In Q1/2001 Lucent Technologies is starting volume production of a complete set of ICs for 10 Gb/s OC-192 datarate SONET optical networking systems.The range of ICs will uses both: • SiGe technology: a module in the COM1 0.25 gtm CMOS process, used for the TFRNO110G clock synthesiser/data multiplexer a n d TRCVO110G clock recovery/data demultiplexer); and • GaAs technology: three-level-metal 0.25 pm pHEMTs for drivers (laser, modulator) and amplifiers (limiting, transimpedance).

First GaN-based multi-Watt tunable source AIGaN/GaN-based VCOs may be used as high-efficiency sources for radio communications," says

6 G H z G a N Oscillator P h a s e Noise

"~ E:Q

0 -10 -20 -30 -40

.~ 0

-60 -70 -80

-

i

-5o

z

Joseph Smart, vp Advanced Technology.

• GaAs FET ~ • GaAs HBT/

Technology: M icroelect ro n ics GaAs MMIC manufacturer United Monolithic Semiconductors (Orsay, France) has launched: • the CHA3o92 broadband (2o33 GHz) medium-power amplifier, which can be used as a buffer amplifier, driver or x2 frequency multiplier (from ].7-22 to ~4-44 GHz] for commercial telecoms systems such as Point-to-Point Radios or LMDS. • the CHX2o91-99F/oo Frequency Multiplier, for frequency generation of the high-linearity 38 GHz Point-to-Point Radio Links and MVDS applications that have to be driven in fundamental mode for the mixers [replacing a separate discrete multiplier and buffer amplifier). • the CHA2194-99F/oo serfbiased 36-44 GHz Low Noise Amplifier, to cover 38 GHz Pointto-Point and 4o-44GHz Point-toMuttipoint broadband wireless applications.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp (Camari[lo, CA, USA) has completed the US$22.zm acquisition of fabless ASIC design house FirstPass Inc {Castle Rock, CO, USA). * Vitesse has promoted Chris Gardnel to Vice President and Chief Operating Officer [reporting to President and CEO Lou Tomasetta) fronl vp and general manager of the Telecom Division.

The components can help p o w e r n e w satellite television technologies that let dish own-

-9o

CD -lOO' ~

News Updah

-110 -120

-130 10

100

1000

Frequency (KHz) Nitride RFIC telecoms developer RF Nitro Communications Inc (Charlotte, NC, USA) has demonstrated multi-Watt AIGaN/GaN HEMT-based voltage controlled oscillators. Varactor-tuned oscillators implemented using distributed networks oscillate at 3 G H z with high output power (2.7 W),

ers access the Internet and use interactive TV features, and c a n also be used in the towers that

high efficiency (27%) and high supply voltage range (3.5-30 V) with nominal tuning bandwidth (6%). The single side-band phase noise of GaN FET-based VCOs tested at 6 GHz is comparable to that of GaAs FET-based amplifiers (pictured). "These results indicate that high-power

make up wireless phone networks. RF Nitro was founded by a group from Cornell University led by president Jeff Shealy and is licensing technology developed at Cornell. It is now setting up operations in a University City area business park. RF Nitro C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Inc Tel/Fax: + % 7 0 4 - 5 9 6 - 9 0 6 0 / 0 9 5 0

EMCORE's Electronic Materials Division (Somerset. NI USA) bias achieved over 2'50% growth in shipments of InGaP epiwafers over the last year due to increased demand for wireless communications devices (more than half of the growth through 6" epi-wafers). * EMCORE has received a US$1o.7m order from ANADtGICS Inc for 6" GaAs HBT and pHEMT wafers for power amplifiers for GSM, TDMA and CDMA multiband wireless handsels and for high-speed digital components for 0C-192 datacoms.

III-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL 14 - NO t - JAN/FEB =ool

News Update

li

Technology: Microelectronics

Technology: Microe|ectronics To extend its Wireless & Microcontrollers division into the transmission and fibre-optics domain, Atmel Corp (San Jose, CA, USA) has upgraded the 6" SiGe foundry process at its fab in Heilbronn, Germany to 82 GHz. The SiGe2 upgrade also provides a noise figure of 1.5 dB at 5 GHz and transistors operating at 2-5 or 4.o V.

Maxim Integrated Products (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) has introduced two SiGe analogue components for lo (:,b/s fibre-optic signals: lhe 5V MAX393o to.7 Ob/s 0C-192 laser driver and the 3.3V MAX~95o lo Gb/s SDH/SONE1 1:t6 deserializer with low-voltage differential-signalling outputs.

Cree acquires UltraRF Cree Inc (Durham, NC, USA) has completed the acquisition

infrastructure companies and providers" (potentially acceler-

bined with Cree's SiC and GaN RF products, could provide a

of the UltraRF division of Spectrian Corp (Sunnyvale, CA,

ating customer acceptance of its SiC and GaN technology).

total solution for third and future generations above 2 GHz.

USA) in exchange for 1,815,402 shares of common stock and

Also, in a two-year supply

US$30m in additional shares.

agreement, Spectrian will purchase UltraRF products. Cree

UltraRF will expand its range of silicon-based LDMOS and bipo-

and Spectrian also have a one-

frequencies. *According to the November 2000 issue of Gilder

less infrastructure) to include

high-gain driver modules and high-efficiency p o w e r modules

Publishing's The Huber Mills, Digital Power Report, "The

RF p o w e r semiconductors

as well as SiC-based high-power

based on Cree's SiC technology. Cree gains additional design,

MESFETs.

high-power LDMOS market hardly existed four years ago.

packaging and distribution channels for its SiC- and GaNbased devices, together with

Cree Chairman and CEO Neal Hunter says UltraRF's LDMOS technology (for 0.8-2.4 GHz

relationships with "key wireless

wireless infrastructure), com-

Today, it accounts for roughly 50% of total sales of high-end RF powerchips." Cree Inc Tel/Fax: + 1 - 9 1 9 - 3 1 3 - 5 3 9 7 / 5 4 5 2

Kyma ships 2" AIN substrates ahead of schedule Park, NC, USA) announced that it would make available by

ture) - see Issue 6, page 17. However, in November Kyma shipped AIN substrates to "one

conductivity and better lattice matching ofAIN substrates

of the world's most prominent

reduce p o w e r consumption and increase brightness, lifes-

"end-2000" the first freestanding 2" ahtminium nitride sub-

aerospace companies", ahead of the predicted schedule.

pan and quality for A1N- and GaN-based devices.

strates (the largest commercial-

The high IR, visible, and UV transmission, high thermal

Kyma Technologies Tel: + 1 - 9 9 1 - 7 8 9 - 8 8 8 0

ly available for device manufac-

Nitronex wins contract for AIGaN UV camera; raises US$9.5m first-round funding; RFMD CEO joins board Nitronex Corp (Raleigh, NC,

* Nitronex has received a con-

specific camera based on

USA) - which was founded in

tract for the development of A1GaN-based UV photodetec-

AlGaN in a 32x32-pixel focal plane array. (see Materials

tors and focal plane array cameras from the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO)

Research Society Internet Journal of Nitride Semiconductor Research,

Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program

The "visible blind" camera

(administered through the

detects light at 300-365nm.

1999 - has received US$9.5m in first-rotmd financing, to be used to develop GaN-based wireless devices. Nitronex claims that its manufacturing process reduces crystal defects (the main barrier to adoption of GaN for electronics) by more than 100,000 times.

Infineon Technologies (Munich, {ietmauv) 17,t~, opened a new t(: development centre in [chitolles. near(irenoble. F~an(e bar hiRh-gpeed fih,le optic data tlar~smission IC-, using SiGe and (: MOS.

to offer a complete suite of products over a broad range of

year joint agreement for development of LDMOS-based linear

lar RF p o w e r semiconductors (for p o w e r amplifiers in wire-

Last September Kyma Technologies (Research Triangle

At the Bluetooth Developers Conference in Decenlber RF Micro Devices Inc (an associate member o[ the Bluetooth Special Interest Group) laun(hed the RF2472 SiGe low noise amplifier {capable of operating from DC to 6 GHz) for use in Bluetouth (".4 OHz ISMband), cell-phone and P(S hand'~et applications.

Cree will be the first company

Individual investors include David A Norbury, president and CEO of RF Micro Devices, w h o joins the board of directors. According to Nitronex president and CEO Bob Lynch, "Nitronex and RFMD share complementary technologies and business partners."

Sensors Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Bedford, MA, USA, and planned for six months in the initial evaluation phase). Nitronex will team with the North Carolina State University Solid State Physics Laboratory, directed by Professor J F Schetzina, w h o recently demonstrated the world's first UV-

IIl-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL 'z4 - NO t - JAN/FEB 2ooz

http://nsr.mij.mrs.org/4/9/).

The goals of the STIR contract are to: • develop larger array sizes for better image resolution; • investigate extending UV sensing to shorter 280 nm 'solar blind' wavelengths; and • transfer technology to Nitronex for commercial manufacturing. Nitronex Corp Tel: + 1 - 9 1 9 - 8 0 7 - 9 1 0 0

NewsUpdate~ !!/ i:i ili;ii i;i ¸:,I~! ~ : if:i!

II

iiil

IQE acquires Wafer Tech; SEI's first forms Silicon Compounds US GaAs epitaxy subsidiary plant In N o v e m b e r S u m i t o m o

Epi-wafer f o u n d r y IQE plc has

BiCMOS and bipolar processing;

made its first major acquisition

SiGe, SiGe selective g r o w t h and

Electric Industries Ltd (Itami,

- of substrate and polycrys-

other epi services for fibre-optic

Japan) b e g a n c o n s t r u c t i o n of

talline material supplier Wafer

and wireless communications

its first US w a f e r manufactur-

Tcchnolog3' Ltd (Milton

on 4", 6" and 8" diameter wafers.

ing plant in Hillsboro, OR,

Keynes, UK) - for £ 4 1 . 3 m T h e acquisition secures direct access to Vertical Gradient Freeze and Czochralski g r o w t h of not just GaAs but also InP wafers). WaferTech e m p l o y s 57 p e o p l e and has a 37,000 ft 2 facility.

The first major c u s t o m e r is integrated optical circuit manufacturer Bookham Technology plc. Bookham is initially subcontracting time on IQE's epi

USA (also to be the HQ of a n e w sales n e t w o r k , w i t h offices in N e w York and San Francisco). In a US$20m first phase, test

e q u i p m e n t and has entered

production by August will be

into agreements to p r o c u r e

followed by full p r o d u c t i o n by

Martin Lamb joins the Main

dedicated epi p r o d u c t i o n (help-

2002 (20,000 wafers a month).

Board of 1QE plc while continu-

ing Bookham to rapidly devel-

The initial focus will be on

ing as CEO of Wafer Tech.

op n e w p r o d u c t s and transfer

laser marking, edge grinding,

t h e m directly into production,

polishing, cleaning, packaging

minimising time-to-market).

and shipping 6" GaAs wafers

* IQE has formed a subsidiary, IQE Silicon C o m p o u n d s , w h i c h will operate from Q1/2001 in a

* IQE's Q3/2000 sales w e r e

n e w facility in Cardiff, UK

£6.431m (up 39% on Q3/99).

(close to its existing opera-

Orders for the quarter w e r e a

tions). Funding is aided by a

record £12.15"7m (up 85%).

d e v e l o p m e n t grant from the Welsh Assembly u n d e r Regional Selective Assistance o f £ 1 . 7 m . Over 100 jobs will be created over four years.

Two m o r e multi-wafer MOCVD reactors and one m o r e largescale MBE reactor are e x p e c t e d to b o o s t o u t p u t further from the end of Q1/2001.

for wireless telecoms (from ingots made in a 12,000 m 2 plant in Kobe,Japan, due to begin operation in July), but there is the potential for a further US$70m expansion. Also planned is a second-phase expansion for large-diameter InP wafers for opto.

Services will include selective

Over the next three years 150

and buried-layer Si epitaxy for

jobs will be created. Support has b e e n received from the City of Hillsboro, the Portland

Picogiga continues growth

Development Commission, the State of Oregon and the State's

For Picogiga (Villejust, France)

Another V150, an Applied Epi

sales w e r e ~g6.6m tor Q4/2000

GEN 2000 and a Riber 7000

(up 27% on Q3's record and 86%

will be installed in 2001.

on Q4/99) and a record ~g20.4m for 2000 (84% up on '99).As well as sales for Wireless Local Loop g r o w i n g faster than handsets, Picogiga has also penetrated the fibre-optic telecoms

N e w wafer recycling subsidiary for Q4/2000, and is currently

* Snmitomo is to float 40%, of

building a n e w plant in Pcynier,

plasma etch tool manufacturer

France (closer to its customers).

Surface Technology Systems (South Wales, UK) on London's

and modulators) and added

is qualigqng a high-performance

m e t a m o r p h i c HEMTs and HBTs

transmission laser with high

(6.5% of sales in Q4/2000).

thermal stabiliW and is develoption w i t h one of its customers.

J, { ~ ~ ~,~ < ~

at a value o f £ 4 0 m . Sumitomo b o u g h t STS in 1995 from Electrotech ( n o w Trikon). STS will use p r o c e e d s to e x p a n d its facility and increase

meet d e m a n d tbr HBTs, a third

* Picogiga has entered the IT CAC

Riber 6000 MBE system became

50 Index of teclmologg~ stocks on

operational in Janua W and a VG

the Paris stock exchange.

end-December (3 m o n t h s early).

~>/

Alternative Investment Market

ing a p h o t o d e t e c t o r in coopera-

Semicon V150 was delivered at

III-VsREVIEW

wafer Planetary Reactor.

Picopolish also bad record sales

N e w opto subsidiary Modulight

higher than a year ago. But, to

* SEI has p u r c h a s e d an AIXTRON AIX 2400/2600G3 multi-

field (with low-noise amplifiers

Capacity is already three times

Tokyo office.

}~iZ> ,N ~<}:~, ~ , ~ ; / W '~A V O L a 4 - N O s - J A N / F E B

aooa

its n e t w o r k of service engineers.

i}i{

......i:iii!i!iiiiiiiiiiiiiii i

tion to lli-Vs Review

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News Updah

ATMI expands for GaAs & GaN epi D u e to b e i n g "sold-out for

d i a m e t e r 2" a n d larger) for blue

InGaP HBTs",ATMI Inc

lasers.ATMl h a s b e e n a w a r d e d

(Danbury, CT, USA) is expand-

c o n t r a c t s totalling nearly

ing its GaAs epi capacity w i t h a

US$4m f r o m t h e Office o f

n e w 50,000 ft 2 facility in

Naval R e s e a r c h a n d t h e

Phoenix,AZ, USA.The plant will

Ballistic Missile D e f e n s e

a c c o m m o d a t e 11 AIXTRON

O p e r a t i o n to f u r t h e r d e v e l o p

2600 MOVPE reactors (with

GaN w a f e r s for m i c r o e l e c t r o n -

s p a c e p l a n n e d for eight more).

ic a n d o p t o e l e c t r o n i c d e v i c e s u s i n g its p a t e n t e d hydride

ATMI is also e x p a n d i n g its two-

vapour phase epitaxy process.

year-old v e n t u r e to d e v e l o p

MOCVD News Before end-2000 AIXTRON AG (Aachen, G e r m a n y ) sold its 500th m u l t i - p u r p o s e MOCVD s y s t e m since its f o u n d a t i o n in 1983 (a repeat order for an AIX 2600G3 to Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Itami,Japan for lasers). T h e 300 include over 250 multi-wafer p r o d u c t i o n m a c h i n e s for c o m p o u n d s (190 over t h e last t w o years, including m o r e t h a n 30 for 6" GaAs).

high-purity GaN w a f e r s (of

* T h e AIXTRON G r o u p h a s r e p o r t e d Q 3 / 2 0 0 0 sales o f

Agilent orders multiw a f e r 6 " MBE systems

~ 2 8 . 9 m . Q1-Q3 sales w e r e ~ 9 5 . 2 m ( u p 61% o n Q1-Q3/99) a n d orders C 1 4 9 m ( u p 177%). T h e sales forecast for 2000 has since b e e n raised again to

T h e r m o Electron Corp's

48,000 wafers p e r year o f

T h e r m o VG S e m i c o n subsidiary

e n h a n c e m e n t - m o d e pHEMTs

(Beverly, MA, USA) h a s received

for CDMA, GSM, a n d 3G mobile

To s u p p o r t "projected i n d u s t r y

orders from Agilent Technologies

h a n d s e t power-amplifier mod-

g r o w t h t h r o u g h 2006", d u r i n g

Inc (Santa Rosa, CA, USA) for

ules by end-2002).

2001 Akzo Nobel is to e x p a n d

~ 1 5 0 m ( u p 77% o n '99).

capacity for high-purity met-

t h r e e V150 MBE s y s t e m s for its

Agilent u s e d VG S e m i c o n ' s

n e w 6" lab line in Fort Collins,

VIO0 MBE s y s t e m to d e v e l o p

CO, USA ( d u e to p r o d u c e

its E-pHEMT technology.

alorganics (HPMO) p r o d u c t i o n , distribution and service capabilities at its c o m p l e x in Deer Park, TX, USA.

AXT discontinues laser product line

Akzo Nobel f o r m e d a n e w HPMO unit d u r i n g 1999-2000, leading to a tripling of R&D r e s o u r c e s d e d i c a t e d to HPMO. F u r t h e r i n v e s t m e n t s starting in 2002 will e n h a n c e HPMO quali-

AXT Inc ( F r e m o n t , CA, USA)

c h a r g e s of a b o u t U S $ 7 . 8 m

is d i s c o n t i n u i n g its laser d i o d e

w e r e e x p e c t e d in Q 4 / 2 0 0 0 .

a n d c o n s u m e r p r o d u c t lines w i t h i n its visible e m i t t e r divis i o n in 2 0 0 1 . T h e c o m p a n y says it is d o i n g this so that it c a n f o c u s o n its c o r e b u s i n e s s e s of

ty, consistency, and capacit}: Daido Air P r o d u c t s Electronics

* AXT will also recognize a pre-

Inc (Lehigh Valley, PA, USA) h a s

tax gain of a b o u t US$27.3m in

o p e n e d a n e w facility at its

Q 4 / 2 0 0 0 for t h e receipt o f

Specialty C h e m i c a l s C e n t e r in

Finisar Corp stock.

T s u k u b a , J a p a n to provide

GaAs a n d InP s u b s t r a t e s , its

* AXT's Q 3 / 2 0 0 0 sales w e r e a

e n h a n c e d local MO transfill a n d

first m a j o r c u s t o m e r for blue,

record US$34.4m ( u p 19% o n

analytical capabilities ( w i t h

g r e e n a n d c y a n LEDs, a n d t h e

Q2 a n d 72% on Q3/99).

future o p p o r t u n i t y for c h e m i c a l production).

i n t r o d u c t i o n of VCSELs w a f e r s a n d chips. Related pre-tax

Daido is a joint v e n t u r e b e t w e e n Air P r o d u c t s a n d C h e m i c a l s Inc a n d Air W a t e r

18

I II-Vs

REVIEW

; ' ;

Corrosive gas purification

Inc a n d t h e exclusive s u p p l i e r

M a t h e s o n Tri-Gas Inc (San Jose, CA, USA) h a s i n t r o d u c e d t h e

in J a p a n of metal-organic prod-

NANOCHEM MetalX purification m e d i u m (based o n activated inor-

ucts from E p i c h e m Ltd

ganic materials) to r e m o v e m o i s t u r e a n d volatile metals from corro-

( B r o m b o r o u g h , UK a n d

sive gases s u c h as HC1, HBr a n d CI 2.

Allentown, PA, USA).

~

~'~.

~, ~:~

VOL ~4 - NO ~ - JAN/FEB

2oo~

Technology: Optoelectronics

~ews Update

Toyoda claims first massproduced violet LEDs

Cree-Rohm partner on blue lasers; lawsuits versus Nichia High-volume LED and laser

* To protect the patents

well as trade-secret theft, cover-

manufacturer R o h m Co Ltd

licensed to Cree, R o h m has

ing m e t h o d s of manufacturing

(Kyoto,Japan) has granted Cree

filed lawsuits against Nichia

and designs for GaN-based

Inc (Durham, NC, USA) a five-

Corp (Tokushima, Japan) and

LEDs, laser diodes, and electron-

year exclusive license to several

Nichia America Corp

ics. (Nichia holds the patents

US patents and a non-exclusive

(Mountville, PA, USA) in the US

on all of Nakamura's work.)

license u n d e r a Japanese patent

International Trade Commission

NCSU granted Cree a licence to

Toyoda Gosei Co (Nagoya,

for opto devices (LEDs & lasers).

and the US District Court for

its technology for lateral epitax-

Japan) claims it is the world's

The c o m p a n i e s have also

the Eastern District of

ial overgrowth of GaN in June

first c o m p a n y to mass p r o d u c e

signed a non-binding memoran-

Pennsylvania. It alleges that

1999, prior to the granting of a

violet LEDs (380 rim)

d u m of understanding for the

Nichia is infringing its US

US patent to NCSU inApril 2000.

The Toyota Motor Corp affili-

cooperative development of a

Patents 6,084,899 and

Cree subsequently filed a law-

ate will c o m b i n e t h e m w i t h an

packaged SiC-based GaN blue

6,115,399 by manufacturing

suit against Nichia for patent

optical catalyst for use in car

laser for c o n s u m e r applications

and selling GaN-based LEDs

infringement covering the

air purifiers (launched in

s u c h as DVD.

with a structure w h i c h allows

growth of GaN structures, seek-

October, and be installed in all

high-brightness LEDs by lower-

ing an injunction against Nichia

Toyota cars).They d e c o m p o s e

ing the operating voltage.

importing and selling certain

organics in the air inlo water

GaN lasers in the US.

and carbonic acid by e x p o s i n g

* Cree has pledged US$1.2m to

a titanium oxide optical cata-

the College of Engineering at

lyst to light from a violet LED

In October Cree reported blue lasers on SiC with CW lifetime of over 100 h o u r s and an oper-

Nichia has filed counterclaims

ating output p o w e r of 1-3 mW,

in the US District Court for the

"allowing Cree to begin initial

Eastern District of North

design work with systems manufacturers". Cree has also

State University, Cree Inc, and

demonstrated up to 100 m W of

ex-Nichia nitride blue laser pio-

CW p o w e r from a single device

neer and current University of

(exceeding the 30-40 m W need-

California, Santa Barbara profes-

ed for read/write applications).

sor Shuji Nakamura (who

Barbara to e n d o w the Cree

fiers w h i c h use UV lamps).

Chair in Solid State Lighting

The violet LEDs will later be

and Displays, as well as supporting research on GaN-based

used in h o u s e h o l d e q u i p m e n t

electronic materials and

equipmenO.Toyoda Gosei is

devices. Cree says it will not

targeting annual sales of ¥ 1 b n

receive technology rights

in 2-3 years.

T h o u g h not including joint LED

joined Cree as a part-time

development, Cree and Rohm

research employee in October).

have also entered into an annu-

The counterclaim includes

al supply agreement for the

infringement of US Patents

purchase by R o h m of LED

5,306,662, 5,578,839,

Cree Lighting Company have

chips m a d e by Cree.

5,747,832, and 5,767,581, as

also pledged a further US$1m.

.

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7.1

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O

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.

(more eco-friendly t h a n puri-

University of California, Santa

Carolina against North Carolina

resulting from the donation. Founders at both Cree Inc and

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i .

-efftctent opttcally pumped mtd-IR QW laser .

.

In the drive to develop a thermoelectrically-cooled, continuous wave, mid-infrared diode laser, Jerry Meyer et al at the Naval Research Laboratory - in collaboration with Sarnoff Corp and Sensors Unlimited (both of Princeton, NJ, USA)- have enclosed an active region of 10 InAs/GaInSb/AIAsSb type-II q u a n t u m wells in a timed etalon optically p u m p e d cavity to demonstrate 7.1% conversion efficiency and continuouswave operation at temperatures of u p to 195 K. The differential q u a n t u m efficiency at lOOK reached 11.4%

.

( h o m e electronics and lighting

.

per facet, compared to 1.8% for an 80-QW device without the optical enclosure.The efficiency degraded slowly with increasing temperature, remaining above 7% per facet at 220K in one sample, and above 4% at 275 K in another.The p u m p absorbance for the enclosed device reached 71%. The thickness of the InAs and AIAsSb barriers required to hold transport are too thick to transfer the design to electricallyp u m p e d structures. For electrical pumping,A1GaAsSb barriers were incorporated, engineering the first light-hole sub-band to

be about 100 meV above the valence band m a x i m u m , w h i c h forced the device into lighthole transport rather than heavy-hole transport.

...without infringing Nichia's patents Following a law-suit from Nichia Corp over alleged LED patent infringements, in July

In pulsed mode, a 10-QW device generated 3.27 gun output at temperatures as high as 310 K.

the Tokyo District Court

In CW mode, the threshold current of a five-QW device rose from 63 A/cm 2 at 78 K to 1.4 kA/cm 2 at 195K. Differential q u a n t u m efficiencies varied from 12% (48 mW/A) at 78 K to 0.9% (3.4 mW/A) at 195 K. The device generated 20 m W of output p o w e r at 180 K (down from 143 m W at 78 K).

blue LEDs.

ordered Toyoda Gosei to susp e n d production and sales of

Toyoda Gosei, however, has taken the case to a higher court.Toyoda claims to have developed violet LEDs without using any knowledge subject to court action and has applied for patents covering 20 violet LED technologies.

IIl-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL 14 - NO t - JAN/FEB 2oos

NewsUpdat~

Double-brightness AIInGaN LEDs Philips Lighting/Agilent joint

Also, typical forward voltage is

signal requires less t h a n 12

v e n t u r e LumiLeds Lighting

2.9-3.5 V, t h e r m a l resistance is

LumiLeds Lighting p o w e r LEDs

(San Jose. CA, USA) says that it

12 C/W, a n d series resistance is

to m e e t t h e s a m e specification.

introduced a power package

less t h a n 1 ~ at 350 mA.

that allows AllnGaN b l u e a n d g r e e n LEI)s to be o p e r a t e d at t w i c e t h e optical o u t p u t p o w e r a n d efficiency (requiring

fewer



site in t h e B u r g w e i n t i n g indus-

dollar o r d e r f r o m 911EP for a

trial park, R e g e n s b u r g . In April

LumiLeds Labs h a s already

c u s t o m P o w e r Light Source for

it will start c o n s t r u c t i o n o f a

d e m o n s t r a t e d blue LED o u t p u t

e m e r g e n c y vehicle lighting.

factory that, f r o m F e b r u a r y

Materials R e s e a r c h M a n a g e r Frank Steranka).

blue LEDs: 100 mW, 5-8

G m b H & Co h a s invested ~ 3 3 . 5 m in acquiring a 40,000 m 2

* LttmiLeds h a s a multi-million

LEDs o n t h e market", says

Typical p o w e r o u t p u t s are:

Osram Opto Semiconductors

The next improvement from

o f 1 8 0 m W ("the h i g h e s t flux

LEDs a n d r e d u c i n g cost).

Osram's 120m new LED plant

* LumiLeds is c o o p e r a t i n g w i t h traffic signal unit m a n u f a c t u r e r Swarco Futurit (Vienna,Austria)

2002 ( w i t h a f u r t h e r ~ 8 8 m for tools) will p r o d u c e LED chips. T h e site will be o p e r a t e d in par-

to p r o d u c e a new, jointly devel-

allel to t h e Regensburg-West

o p e d LED-based signal for t h e

plant d u r i n g a transition period,

j u n c t i o n LEDs allow a m o r e

European,Asian a n d South-

w i t h operations m o v e d entirely

"bulb-replacement" c o n c e p t

A m e r i c a n retrofit markets. T h e

to t h e n e w site at a later date.

t h a n traditional LEDs.For exam-

t w o c o m p a n i e s will also under-

ple, a standard 200 m m r e d traf-

take joint m a r k e t i n g in t h e Europe, t h e Middle-East a n d

By c o m p a r i s o n , t h e o u t p u t o f

fic signal u s i n g traditional 5 m m LEDs requires 180 LEDs

i n d u s t r y standard 5 m m b l u e

to m e e t t h e light o u t p u t specifi-

* In t h e 1999/2000 fiscal

LEDs is less t h a n 10 mW.

cation, w h e r e a s t h e s a m e traffic

O p t o S e m i c o n d u c t o r s con-

lumens; •

LumiLeds says that s u c h large-

g r e e n LEDs: 40 mW, 10-20

lumens; •

b l u e / g r e e n LEDs: 70 m W

15-25 l u m e n s .

Africa region (EMEA).

By t h e start of 2003 staffing in R e g e n s b u r g will rise f r o m 890 n o w to a b o u t 1300. year,

tributed 7% to O s r a m ' s sales of ~ 4 . 3 b n . O s r a m is also d o u b l i n g

Double-brightness AIInGaP LEDs using MQWs and DBRs

plant in Penang, Malaysia.

In J a n u a r y U n i t e d Epitaxy

tivity D i s t r i b u t e d Bragg

UEC's n e x t AIGalnP LED will

C o m p a n y Ltd ( H s i n c h u ,

R e f l e c t o r mirrors, a c u r r e n t

be wafer-bonded (rather

Qusion's new fab for integrated optical devices

Taiwan) started mass produc-

c o n f i n i n g s t r u c t u r e a n d sur-

than direct-bonded). Using a

O p t o start-up Q u s i o n Technolo-

tion o f a t h i r d - g e n e r a t i o n

face r o u g h e n i n g (see Figure).

t r a n s p a r e n t a d h e s i o n layer to

gies ( f o u n d e d in Princeton, NJ,

b o n d t h e LED epi-wafer w i t h a

AIInGaP H i g h - B r i g h t n e s s LED s t r u c t u r e w i t h d o u b l e t h e light o u t p u t o f its old LED s t r u c t u r e . UEC says this h a s b e e n e n a b l e d through use of multiple quant u m wells, s u p e r i o r high-reflec-

L u m i n o u s efficiency is 20-30 l m / W - c o m p a r a b l e w i t h t h e b e s t p e r f o r m a n c e transpare n t substrate (TS)AIGalnP LEDs a n d typical f o r w a r d voltage is less t h a n 2.75 V at 100 mA.

-

p-electrode Current spreading layer " ~ Upper confining layer

rlIfllllliiJ

]tllrllllil~i

USA in N o v e m b e r 1999) h a s

totally t r a n s p a r e n t s u b s t r a t e

o p e n e d a n e w 33,000 ft 2 facili-

s u c h as s a p p h i r e w a f e r or glass

ty 10 miles f u r t h e r n o r t h in

will give l u m i n o u s i n t e n s i t y greater than commercially available (TS) A1GaInP LEDs, it is claimed. P r o d u c t i o n will

South Brunswick, NJ ( e x p e c t e d to h o u s e 50 e m p l o y e e s b y end2001). It i n c l u d e s a 4000 ft 2 class 1000 c l e a n r o o m ( w i t h an

start in Q 4 / 2 0 0 1 .

AIXTRON 2400G3 MOCVD

* UEC h a s d e v e l o p e d a n e w

r e a c t o r for g r o w t h of InP a n d

t e c h n i q u e to activate t h e

InGaAs o n wafers u p to 4" in

p-type m a g n e s i u m d o p a n t in

diameter) a n d a class 100

" ~ Active layer

GaN t h r o u g h t r e a t m e n t in a

lithography cleanroom.

-'~ Low confining layer

m i c r o w a v e o v e n in air at a

I~ DBR It Current confining

t e m p e r a t u r e less t h a n IO0°C for a b o u t 1 m i n u t e ( r a t h e r t h a n t h e r m a l a n n e a l l i n g in n i t r o g e n a b o v e 400°C). UEC

"~ substrate

n-electrode

A cross-sectional schematic diagram showing the structure of UEC's doublebrightness third-generation AIInGaP High-Brightness LED, including the use of a multiple quantum-well active region, high-reflectivi~y Distributed Bragg Reflector mirrors, a current-confining structure and surface roughening.

20

capacity o f its LED a s s e m b l y

In Q1/2001 it will p r o d u c e its first m o d u l e s monolithicaUy integrating optical devices ( s u c h as optical switches and modulators) into a single m u l t i - c o m p o n e n t

h a s filed t w o p a t e n t s for this

chip for 40Gb/s a n d b e y o n d net-

t e c h n o l o g y , b u t is willing to

w o r k speeds (as well as reducing

share the technology with

integration a n d m a n a g e m e n t

other companies through

costs for optical n e t w o r k s y s t e m

cooperation.

developers (particularly DWDM).

~L C

Q ~,~i(:~ Te(hnoi ~ie~

III-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL tb, - NO 1 - JAN/FEB aoo~

iews Update

NEC, Infineon and Lucent chip spin offs T h e spin-off of Lucent

late spring 2001, so that exist-

J a p a n it will have an e x p e c t e d

T e c h n o l o g i e s ' Microelectronics

ing s p a c e c a n be e q u i p p e d for

capitalisation o f ¥ 1 2 b n

to Y30Obn by 2005 ( c o m p a r e d

G r o u p (due by e n d - s u m m e r

additional m a n u f a c t u r i n g capac-

(US$ lOOm), first-year sales of

w i t h a forecasted doubling of

2001) will h e n a m e d Agere

ity at a cost o f a b o u t US$14m.

¥ 1 2 0 b n (US$1bn), and staffing

t h e m a r k e t to ¥2tr).

Systems Inc ( p r o n o u n c e d "a-

Lucent h a s s p e n t US$1 l m o n

of 500.

GEAR").The c o m p a n y will be

leasing 1 1 , 2 5 0 m 2 of s p a c e else-

h e a d e d by Lucent board m e m -

w h e r e to h o u s e fibre amplifier

b e r J o h n Young as c h a i r m a n (a

production.

f o r m e r p r e s i d e n t a n d CEO of HP), w i t h J o h n Dickson as president a n d CEO, Mark Greenquist as e x e c u t i v e v p a n d c h i e f financial officer, a n d M a t t h e w Riley as senior v p a n d controller. In t h e m e a n t i m e , to m e e t d e m a n d for h i g h - s p e e d optical networking components, the company plans US$65m worth

Dallas TX a n d Matamoros, Mexico to office, laboratory a n d m a n u f a c t u r i n g facilities (creating 750 jobs over t h e n e x t t h r e e years): • In Breinigsville, PA, USA a n e w US$28m, 10,800m 2, threestory office a n d lab at its O p t o e l e c t r o n i c s C e n t e r is b e i n g built ready for o c c u p a t i o n by

Also, I n f i n e o n T e c h n o l o g i e s AG Preparations will b e g i n in April,

(Munich, G e r m a n y ) is p l a n n i n g

w h e n J a p a n ' s Revised Business

to follow u p t h e disposal of its

Law c o m e s into effect. NEC will

non-core consumer-oriented

have 100% o w n e r s h i p , b u t i n t e n d s to m a k e an initial pub-

audio-visual chip b u s i n e s s to

a n d lab s p a c e will be c o n v e r t e d for e x p a n d e d laser m a n u f a c t u r -

lic offering w i t h i n t w o years,

Switzerland) w i t h t h e divest-

ing o p e r a t i o n s (US$Tm cost).

allowing it to acquire o t h e r

m e n t "by n e x t fiscal year"

• In Dallas,TX, USA an addition-

optical a n d m i c r o w a v e chip

(according to p r e s i d e n t / C E O

al 1 4 4 0 m 2 h a s b e e n built n e x t

o p e r a t i o n s t h r o u g h an

Ulrich S c h u m a c h e r ) of b o t h its

to a facility acquired t h r o u g h

e x c h a n g e of stock. NEC will

optocoupler business (which

buying Herrmann Technology

also explore s e c u r i n g additional

"has n o t h i n g to do w i t h o u r

last year.This will c o n t i n u e to

v e n t u r e capital funding.

strategic target s e g m e n t s " ) and

m a k e DWDM thin-film filters.

R&D will c o n t i n u e at NEC's

its o p t o e l e c t r o n i c b u s i n e s s . T h e latter includes its 49% share in t h e Osram O p t o Semiconductors

• In Reading, 2 7 0 0 m 2 of office

of i n v e s t m e n t s in e x p a n s i o n s in Breinigsville a n d Reading PA,

devices from ¥ 1 0 0 b n in 2000

Micronas AG (Zurich,

• In Matamoros, Mexico, a new,

Kansai research c e n t r e a n d fun-

US$5m build-to-lease 7 2 0 0 m 2

d a m e n t a l device R&D will be

facility d u e to be o c c u p i e d in

established at T s u k u b a

o p t o joint v e n t u r e w i t h O s r a m for LEDs).

Q1/2001 will m a k e transmit-

Laboratories in in T s u k u b a City,

ters, receivers, t r a n s p o n d e r s

Ibaraki Prefecture. However,

a n d fibre amplifiers.

NEC is c o n s i d e r i n g additional

In O c t o b e r NEC Corp (Tokyo, Japan) will spin off its optical and microwave semiconductor o p e r a t i o n s into a n e w divested

i n v e s t m e n t in its California Eastern Laboratories.Also, s o m e m a n u f a c t u r i n g will u s e f o u n d r i e s in J a p a n a n d Taiwan.

* Infineon r e p o r t e d record sales for Q 4 / 2 0 0 0 of ~g2.38bn ( u p 30% o n Q3 a n d 82% o n Q4/99) a n d for fiscal 2000 of US$6.3bn (~g7.28bn, u p 72% o n '99).The increases w e r e ascribed to its

c o m p a n y (as yet u n n a m e d ) .

NEC believes it c a n treble sales

growing memory and commu-

H e a d q u a r t e r e d in Tamagawa,

o f optical a n d m i c r o w a v e

nications IC operations.

Uniroyal/Sterling expansions and product launches Uniroyal Technology Corp (Sara-

* Uniroyal O p t o e l e c t r o n i c s

first range of m u l t i - q u a n t u m -

UOE has also launched a Phase 2

sota, FL, USA) claims record ord-

c o m p l e t e d t h e US$35m Phase 1

well h i g h - b r i g h t n e s s LEDs:

build-out o f t h e r e m a i n i n g

er backlog for SiC wafers of its

of its 77,000 ft 2 h i g h - b r i g h t n e s s

subsidiary Sterling Semiconductor

LED w a f e r f o u n d r y a n d lab in

Inc. Bookings during O c t o b e r

Tampa, FL, USA in July ( b e g u n

e x c e e d e d total wafer sales for

in February 1999 a n d claimed

t h e previous six-months.

to be t h e "largest full-colour

A recently a n n o u n c e d expan-

s p e c t r u m LED fab in t h e world).



POWER-BR(ite) AIlnGaP/GaAs

red (626 n m ) a n d red-orange (621 n m ) LEDs (to b e joined by 590 n m yellow a n d 650 n m royal red LEDs by mid-2001), w h i c h include a Distributed

sion plan for Sterling includes:

Bragg Reflector a n d range in

• installation of additional SiC

intensity f r o m 70 m c d to >150

p r o d u c t i o n e q u i p m e n t (mainly

m c d (bare die tested at 20 mA);

crystal g r o w t h furnaces, b a s e d



o n Sterling's p r o p r i e t a r y design) that will increase its SiC w a f e r p r o d u c t i o n 1 O-fold; • a n e w 50,000 ft 2 facility in N o r t h e r n Virginia that will allow t h e consolidation of o p e r a t i o n s

Bare LED die being tested by Uniroyal Optoelectronics.

33,000 ft 2 (to be c o m p l e t e in mid-2OO1).This involves increasing infrastructure a n d s u p p o r t to e x p a n d capacity fourfold for testing, fabrication a n d epitaxy (including a b o u t 20 n e w reactors,, t h e first d u e in February, plus four m o r e over May-July). A n e w R&D facility is also b e i n g built.

POWER-Ga(i)N InGaN-on-

sapphire emerald-green (525 nm),

* Uniroyal Technology Corp's

blue-green (cyan, 505 n m ) royal

Q 4 / 2 0 0 0 sales w e r e US$18.7m

blue (450 n m ) and blue (470 n m )

( u p 16% o n Q4/99, e x c l u d i n g

LEDs, w h i c h have b r i g h t n e s s of 1.5-3

m W tested as bare, u n e n -

sales of t h e divested Coated Fabrics a u t o m o t i v e business):

c a p s u l a t e d die, w i t h n o i n d e x

C o m p o u n d S e m i c o n d u c t o r and

This w a s followed at t h e Fall

m a t c h i n g materials, at 20 mA.

O p t o e l e c t r o n i c s US$1.2m (up

UV LEDs (395 n m a n d o t h e r

296% f r o m Q3).

nally by Sterling for t h e devel-

Materials Research Society m e e t i n g in Boston at t h e e n d of

w a v e l e n g t h s ) are c u r r e n t l y in

o p m e n t of SiC devices.

N o v e m b e r by t h e l a u n c h of its

t h e s a m p l e / t e s t stage.

in Sterling,VI a n d Danbury, CT. Wafers will also be u s e d inter-

III-Vs REVIEW

~+c+~:;,
VOL 14 - NO 1 -JAN/FEB 2 o o l

m

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Tesbnoio~:Opt°e)_estr°nics

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Opto start-ups receive funding After receiving US$6. l m in

Novalux Inc (Sunnyvale, CA,

Kamelian has received US$20m

first-round venture capital fund-

USA) has closed a US$109m

in first-round funding to:

ing 7 months ago, Alfalight Inc

round of equity financing which

• expand its HQ and R&D facil-

has raised US$28m in a second

includes new investors Cisco

round, led by Advanced

Systems Inc and Intel Capital.

ities in the West of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow (where

Technology Ventures. Alfalight will complete a 20,000 ft 2 building in Madison,WI, USA

NovahLx will expand manufacturing capacity for its first family

(a 15,000 ft 2 packaging facility

of pump lasers (focusing on atttomated methods of packag-

near Montreal, Canada was

hag, assembly and testing) and

opened in September).

assemble independent design

Alfalight is developing highpower, 980 nm single-mode and

teams to develop photonic prod-

low-volume prototyping is currently undertaken by Compound Semiconductor Technology Ltd); • build a manufacturing facility near Oxford, UK; and

multi-mode aluminium-free

Novalux also plans a new laser

pump lasers for the metro amp-

technology, the NECSEL

seed round in June to establish the company, venture capital

lifter telecoms using technolo-

(Novalux Extended Cavity

gy developed at the University

Surface Emitting Laser), which

of Wisconsin-Madison (and intellectual property licensed

it claims allows a surface-emit-

exclusively from the Wisconsin

After receiving US$25.5m in venture capital funding, CENiX is building a n e w 4000m 2 HQ

light and fibre (compared to edge-emitting pump lasers). * Novalux has leased a second

and design, assembly and test

facility in Sunnyvale (due to begin production in Q2/2001).

facility in Allentown, PA, USA

It will provide an additional

(designed to accommodate an

100,000 ft 2 for the expansion

expansion to 5800m2), for com-

of office space, advanced tech-

pletion and occupancy for

nology laboratories and R&D of

June. Initial employment is 60,

n e w products, and wafer processing, as well as highly auto-

with up to 100 by end-2001. CyOptics Inc, which develops 10 and 40 Gb/s InP-based opto

to this, about 26.1% of CyOptics was o w n e d by Semi-

dling and data management", says vice president of operations

Conductors Devices, a partner-

Gary Oppedahl. "The "siliconiz-

ship owned equally by Elbit

ing' of GaAs will allow signifi-

Systems (Haffa, Israel) and

cant decreases in cost and

Rafael Armaments Development

increases in efficiency", adds

New investors include Cisco Systems, Corning, Intel Capital

CEO Malcolm Thompson.

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20 IJm wavelength of Bell Labs quantum cascade laser is longest ever Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs (Murray Hill, NJ, USA) claims to have made the longest-wavelength semiconductor laser ever (Appl. Phys. Left. 77 (15) pp2286-2288).

are a challenge for conventional laser designs since the layers needed to accommodate the light's wavelength become prohibitively thick and a lot of the light is

(formerly Weiss, Peck & Greer) US$8m.A further US$5m of

absorbed.

debt financing is being

By tailoring the thicknesses

arranged.

of the 1000 or so nanometre-

Kamelian develops hybrid inte-

thin alternating layers of a quantum cascade laser

gration of InP-based active optical amplifier chips with passive ftxed-wavelength routing chips into higher-functionality optical modules for optical switching, wavelength conversion and signal regeneration.The first products will be released in 2001.

Engineering and Physical Science Research Council is

increases in automation in han-

about 22.8%.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

packaging of its lasers.

tional US$57m in ftmding. Prior

Its stake after the investment is

ther US$10m and the USA's

*The UK government's

"Each module will realize

Authority. SCD invested US$4.8m in the current round.

company 3i has invested a fur-

mated, modular assembly and

components, has raised an addi-

.

Far-infrared wavelengths After investing US$1.5m in a

Alumni Research Foundation).

.

• recruit around 100 staff.

ucts such as tunable transmitters.

ted, high-power, round beam of light that simplifies assembly of

.

(invented in 1994 by Bell Labs' Federico Capasso,Alfred Cho and collaborators), emission at up to -124°C with up to 15 mW of peak p o w e r was obtained at nearly 20 ~m. Such a wavelength is potentially ideal for parts-per-billion detection of pollutants in the stratosphere and in medical and combustion diagnostics,

providing £1m and the photon-

since it is in the energy range

ics industry, Scottish Enterprise

of the internal vibrations and

and the Scottish Higher

rotations of gas molecules).

Education Funding Council another £1m over five years to

The novel design concentrates

fund studentships and course development for an MSc postgraduate degree in Photonics and Optoelectronic Devices, to

ADC ALTITUN 0arfalla, Sweden)

be run jointly by Heriot-Watt

- spun-off from the microelec-

University and the University of

tronics group in Kista in 1997 has installed an AIXTRON AIX

St Andrews, Scotland, UK (a revision of a previous MSc "Optoelectronics and Laser

and Vitesse.

200/4 MOCVD system to grow 1.5vim InP-hased tunable lasers.

* CyOptics recently opened a

Optillion (Kista, Sweden) -

Professor Brian Wherrett (Chair

facility in Yokneam, Israel for

of Theoretical Physics at Heriot-

device packaging, test, burn-in

founded in December '99 - has ordered anAIXTRONAIX 200/4

and qualification, as well as development labs and expand-

and a multi-wafer AIX 2400G3 MOCVD system to develop and

ed office space.

produce InGaAsP lasers.

the light created in the lightemitting region and guides it across a single plane instead of a thick layer stack.As photons are produced, they are attracted by the surface plasmon - a sheet of light that travels along the interface b e t w e e n the semiconductor layers and the metal contact.

Devices"). Recently, Lucent Technologies

22

Watt University) reckons that there are 50 opto companies in Scotland employing 5000 people with annual sales of£60Om.

III-Vs REVIEW THE ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR MAGAZINE VOL 24 - NO ~ - JAN/FEB 2oot

licensed its quantum cascade laser technology to Applied Optoelectronics Inc (Sugarland, TX, USA) - see opposite page. Bell Labs Tel: +I-908-582-4824

~ews Update

AOI's new plant for QCLs Applied Optoelectronics Inc

MBE systems from DCA, for

has c o m p l e t e d the first p h a s e

operation in January.

of a move into a n e w 24,000 ft 2 manufacturing facility in Sugar Land,TX, USA ( w h i c h includes 6000 ft 2 of class 1,000 and 10,000 c l e a n r o o m and office space for m o r e than 75 staff).

Sensors Unlimited triples fab size

struction of a s e c o n d building cleanroom and office space. * At the Seventh A n n u a l

Technology o f the Year A w a r d s p r e s e n t e d at the N a t i o n a l

and three p r o d u c t i o n lines in

Small Business I n n o v a t i o n

Sensors Unlimited Inc (acquired

one headquarters.

Research (SBIR) Conference in

recently by Finisar Corp) has

Bellevue,WA, USA,AOI received

o p e n e d its newly e x p a n d e d

u m e s h i p m e n t s of its singlem o d e 4.6 and 5.2 pm-wave-

the 2000 award for s e n s o r s and

plant in Princeton, NJ, USA.

instrumentation for its midAs well as over 35,000 ft 2 of

infrared laser.

space for technical, administra-

length "type 1" (intra-band) DFB

The "type 2" (inter-band) laser

tive and s u p p o r t functions, the

q u a n t u m cascade lasers (suit-

w a s developed with SBIR fund-

class 1,000/100 cleanroom has

able for sensing applications

ing from the Ballistic Missile

tripled in size to over 5,000 f12,

such as detecting c a r b o n diox-

Defense Organization, the US

with m o r e automation for larg-

ide and a m m o n i a ) as well as its

Air Force and the National

er wafers.

u p c o m i n g line of mid-infrared

Science Foundation but also

p h o t o d e t e c t o r s and VCSELs.

has applications ranging from

Sensors Unlimited makes

medical analysis of chemical

"Optical Eyes" InGaAs photodi-

c o m p o u n d s (such as instant

ode arrays used in the Optical

assessment of glucose) to real-

Performance Monitors that

AOI is n o w qualifying the packaging, testing and materials characterisation facilities. In p h a s e t w o ( b e g u n mid-

i~ ii~,~! ~ i,, i~II

with m o r e than 50,000 ft 2 of

istrative offices, laboratories

first-half 2001 to e n h a n c e vol-

:

In April AOI plans to start con-

The move consolidates admin-

The plant will allow AOI in

~ii~:~411)!ii ~4'ii~ ii~

time detection of hazardous

enable the boosting of capacity,

chemicals and explosives.

p e r f o r m a n c e and reliability of fibre-optic networks.

D e c e m b e r ) AOI took delivery of t w o n e w 3x2" multi-wafer

* At the annual IEEE Lasers a n d

Electro-Optics Society meeting

Finisar acquires Demeter

in Puerto Rico last N o v e m b e r the first Aron Kressel LEOS

a w a r d for "contributions to In November, Gigabit fibre-

Ted Young will c o n t i n u e to

optic c o m p a n y Finisar Corp

serve as President and CEO of

(Sunnyvale, CA, USA) - a devel-

D e m e t e r as a subsidiar}:

o p e r of optics for Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet n e t w o r k s - has c o m p l e t e d the acquisition (for about US$146m in stock) of D e m e t e r Technologies lnc (El Monte, CA, USA), a developer of long-

optoelectronic device technology" was p r e s e n t e d by LEOS president G o r d o n Day to Dr

* AXT Inc (Fremont, CA, USA) -

Greg Olsen, f o u n d e r and presi-

w h i c h held a w a r r a n t from

dent of Sensors Unlimited Inc

D e m e t e r in exchange for par-

for his "pioneering contribu-

tial p a y m e n t of certain leases

tions in the d e v e l o p m e n t and

and transferred technology -

commercialisation of lnGaAs

has received about 1.2m shares

detectors for c o m m u n i c a t i o n s

of Finisar's c o m m o n stock.

and sensing applications".

wavelength Fabry Perot and Distributed Feedback lasers.

First continuous-wave GaAs quantum cascade laser At last O c t o b e r ' s CLEO Europe

wavelengths of 3.4-1 lblm): a dis-

to achieve single-mode emis-

conference in France,Werner

tributed feedback AIAs/GaAs

sion.The maximum operation

Schrenk of the Technical

chirped superlattice QCL at

t e m p e r a t u r e s w e r e a b o u t 30 K

University in Vienna, Austria

11.8 lam (also the longest wave-

(CW) and 160 K (pulsed).

r e p o r t e d the first continuous-

length for a GaAs QCL). Schrenk w a s e x p e c t i n g room-

wave operation of a q u a n t u m cascade laser (QCL) on a GaAs

Schrenk u s e d a metallised sur-

temperature pulsed operation

substrates (as o p p o s e d to InP at

face-relief grating for feedback

by end-2000.

III-VsREVIEW

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,' :

VOLI4-NOl-JAN/FEB2ool

~iI

NewsUpda~

II

Avalon grows 850 nm VCSEL; raises US$14m in first round Just a yea:

~ ~ ordering an

Avalon P h o t o n i c s Ltd (formerly

AIXTRON

I , 2100/2600G3

CSEM Zurich).Avalon is a ven-

a n d Microtechnolog}9 w h i c h f o c u s e s on d e v e l o p m e n t a n d

MOCVD s

t~. n, 850 nmVCSELs

ture capital spin-off from CSEM

production of high-speed

(pictured;

~l, : b e e n g r o w n by

(the Swiss Center for Electronics

VCSELs and VCSEL arrays.

High-power, widely tunable laser AgilitT C o m m u n i c a t i o n s l n c (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) has

Avalon's first r o u n d of v e n t u r e

delivered t h e first high-power,

capital f u n d i n g h a s also just

widely t u n a b l e laser for optical

raised U S S l 4 m , to be u s e d to

n e t w o r k i n g to selected cus-

e x t e n d p r o d u c t i o n and R&D

t o m e r s (with general availabili-

facilities for t h e v o l u m e fabrica-

~- a n d pricing in Q1/2001).

tion a n d f u r t h e r d e v e l o p m e n t i!~ :J!!

of VCSEL arrays as well as o t h e r

"The t u n a b l e laser is critical to

opto p r o d u c t s . Investors

p r o v i d i n g n o n - b l o c k i n g cross-

include Intel Capital,Vision

c o n n e c t capabilities in all-opti-

Capital and Viventures.

cal networks," said Steve Georgis, p r e s i d e n t a n d CEO of N e t w o r k P h o t o n i c s Inc, w i t h a n e e d for a p o w e r f u l laser that c a n s u p p o r t long d i s t a n c e s a n d

Rainbow acquires QWIP rights Technolog~ c o m m e r c i a l i s a t i o n

medical diagnostic applica-

c o m p a n y R a i n b o w G r o u p of

tions) to m a n u f a c t u r e a n d sell

C o m p a n i e s lnc ( E d m o n t o n ,

t h e Q ~ I P chip ( d e v e l o p e d over

Alberta, Canada) h a s agreed

t h e last 10 years at NASA's Jet

w i t h ViaSpace Technologies LLC

Propulsion Lab w i t h over

(Pasadena, (:A, USA) to pur-

U S $ 1 5 m in g o v e r n m e n t financ-

c h a s e t h e r e m a i n i n g 60% of t h e

ing). QWIPTECH is currently

t e c h n o l o g y rights for t h e

fabricating its first p r o d u c t .

Q u a n t u m "Well Infrared Photodetector technology of their joint v e n t u r e Q~VlP T e c h n o l o g i e s LLC

Corning boosts capacity

m o r e t h a n five t i m e s t h e chan-

C o m i n g Inc (Corning, N~, USA)

lasers.

nels t h a n are c u r r e n t l y available f r o m n a r r o w l y t u n a b l e

is investing over U S $ 1 5 0 m at

D e v e l o p e d for DWDM, t h e

Coming Photonic Technologies

Agilil7 3040 lnP-based High-

in B e n t o n T o w n s h i p , PA, USA.

Power, Widely Tunable Laser

Over t h e n e x t t w o years it will

includes t h e Agili~" SGDBR

increase c a p a c i b ~for erbium-

laser. It provides 4 m W of opti-

d o p e d fibre amplifier m o d u l e s

cal o u t p u t p o w e r (four t i m e s

ViaSpace's m i s s i o n is to com-

by m o r e t h a n 50% and for dis-

m o r e t h a n c u r r e n t l y available)

mercialise a d v a n c e d technolo-

persion compensation modules

a n d t u n e s to m o r e t h a n 100

gies that w e r e originally devel-

by m o r e t h a n 200%. Staffing at

International

o p e d by NASA a n d o t h e r gov-

will g r o w f r o m 600 to 2,500.

Telecommunications Union

QWIPTECH h o l d s t h e exclusive

e r n m e n t agencies for s p a c e a n d

w o r l d w i d e licence ( e x c e p t for

d e f e n c e applications.

Microsemi adds 1310 & 1550 nm InGaAs/InP detectors

* T h e e x p a n s i o n to C o r n i n g ' s

c h a n n e l s in fibre-optic net-

Lasertron operation will include

w o r k s ( s u p p o r t i n g t h e entire

a n e w USS225m plant on a 56-

1525-1565 n m "C" b a n d w i t h

acre site in Nashua, NH, USA,

50 GHz spacing). It dynamically

d u e to b e g i n p r o d u c t i o n in t h e

m a n a g e s w a v e l e n g t h provision-

s u m m e r . By 2002, t h e plant

ing in less t h a n 10 m s a n d pro-

will e m p l o y 850 people.

vides greater b a n d w i d t h flexi-

After latmching 850 n m GaAs

c o m b i n a t i o n PIN p h o t o d i o d e -

p h o t o d e t e c t o r s last September,

t r a n s i m p e d a n c e amplifier

* After calling off a m e r g e r w i t h

w a v e l e n g t h or n a r r o w l y tun-

Microsemi Corp (Santa kava, CA,

hybrids. Volume p r o d u c t i o n is

Nortel Networks' optical c o m -

able lasers, r e d u c i n g t h e size

USA) is sampling a second family.

e x p e c t e d by this s u m m e r .

ponent division (see Issue 5, p29),

and cost of r e p l a c e m e n t laser

C o m i n g is acquiring Pirelli's

The MXP4000 Series of four 20 V

Microsemi is also in t h e final

inventories.

InGaAs/InP p h o t o d e t e c t o r s is

design stage of its first InGaP

d e s i g n e d for fibre-optic trans-

HBT t r a n s i m p e d a n c e amplifier,

p o n d e r m o d u l e s a n d hybrids in

to c o m p l e m e n t its InGaAs/InP

t h e 1310-1550 n m spectral

d e t e c t o r line. Samples s h o u l d

range ( w i t h b a n d w i d t h o p t i o n s

be available in March.

from 156 Mb/s to 10Gb/s). T h e y will initially be offered in

* Microsemi is also i n t e n d i n g to

die form for m a n u f a c t u r e r s o f

bili~ " t h a n available w i t h fixed

90% interest in its Optical T e c h n o l o g i e s b u s i n e s s (Milan, Italy) for a b o u t US$3.6bn (160

r a m p to l m lasers p e r year,

times this year's sales).The

w i t h p a c k a g i n g in Allentown,

c o m p a n y m a k e s lithium niobate

PA, USA.

modulators, p u m p lasers, spe-

* Agility h a s a p p o i n t e d Richard

ciality fibres a n d fibre gratings.

C Yonker as Chief Financial

add internal GaAs f o u n d r y

Cisco Systems Inc has since

Officer.

capacit3:

agreed to sell t h e o t h e r 10%, in

photodiode modtfles, supervisory,

e x c h a n g e for stock in C o m i n g .

VCSEL m o n i t o r i n g circuits and

III-Vs REVIEW

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::~'~

"~!! ~,/¢~ ~, h V O L s 4 -

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