Semiconductor today

Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany is to provide HybridPACK Drive G2 CoolSiC silicon carbide (SiC) power modules and bare die products to Xiaomi EV of Shanghai, China for its recently announced SU7 electric vehicle until 2027. ..

Power Integrations Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which provides high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion), has agreed to acquire the assets of Odyssey Semiconductor Technologies Inc of Ithaca, NY, USA, which develops high-voltage vertical power switching components based on proprietary gallium nitride (GaN) processing technology. The transaction is expected to close in July, after which all key Odyssey employees are expected to join Power Integrations’ technology organization...

NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and develops and manufactures high-power industrial blue lasers — has been awarded an $850,000 Phase II contract by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to advance blue laser power transmission technology as a unique solution to dramatically reduce the size and weight of the equipment needed for Lunar and Martian applications. The contract builds on NUBURU’s Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) announced in August 2023...

Micro-LED material technology company Kubos Semiconductors Ltd (which was spun out of the UK’s University of Cambridge in 2017) has raised $2m to accelerate development of its cubic-phase gallium nitride (GaN) technology, which is said to be able to double the efficiency of red micro-LEDs. This brings total funding to $5.5m and will enable Kubos to enter the micro-LED display market within three years through IP licensing...

For the three months ended 31 March (fiscal Q3/2024), BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia — which develops and manufactures gallium nitride (GaN) blue laser diodes based on its proprietary low-temperature, low-hydrogen remote-plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) technology — has given an update, including the following highlights...

Semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corp of Hsinchu, Taiwan has announced what it claims is the first 3D IC solution for radio-frequency silicon-on-insulator (RFSOI) technology. Available on UMC’s 55nm RFSOI platform, the stacked silicon technology reduces die size by more than 45% without any degradation of RF performance, enabling customers to efficiently integrate more RF components to address the greater bandwidth requirements of 5G...

The University of Arkansas (U of A) has celebrated a milestone with the topping-out of the Multi-User Silicon Carbide Research and Fabrication Facility...

Aledia S.A of Echirolles, near Grenoble, France (a developer and manufacturer of 3D micro-LEDs for display applications based on its large-area gallium nitride nanowires-on-silicon platform) has announced a series of technical advances that, it claims, set new standards for performance, efficiency and display quality...

SemiQ Inc of Lake Forest, CA, USA — which designs, develops and manufactures silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors and 150mm SiC epitaxial wafers for high-voltage applications — has announced a partnership with ClearComm Technical Sales of Huntsville, AL, USA, a specialist manufacturer’s representative serving the computing, communication, industrial and consumer sectors across the Southeastern USA...

SemiQ Inc of Lake Forest, CA, USA — which designs, develops and manufactures silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors and 150mm SiC epitaxial wafers for high-voltage applications — has begun a known-good-die (KGD) screening program that delivers high-quality, electrically sorted and optically inspected SiC MOSFET technology ready for back-end processing and direct die attachment...

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA says that MN8 Energy LLC has placed orders for 457MW of its cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaics (PV) modules, including 170MW of its Series 6 Plus bifacial modules and 287MW of its Series 7 modules, to power projects in the northeastern and southern USA...

Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA participated in the China Electronic Hotspot Solutions Innovation Summit in Shenzhen on 27 April, which gathered key players in power semiconductors and associated customer design teams for innovations in electric vehicles (EV) such as 800V supercharging, battery management, intelligent connected vehicle electronics, and high-power digital power supplies. EV OEM attendees this year included experts from Voyah and Dongfeng...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that State University of New York Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) is the recipient of a $4m Empire State Development (ESD) Grant. The new funding — combined with an additional $16m investment in SUNY Poly’s College of Engineering announced by Hochul in November — will support the establishment of a $26.5m Semiconductor Processing to Packaging Research, Education, and Training Center in the NY CREATES Quad C building on SUNY Poly’s campus, which is also occupied by Semikron Danfoss...

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA is to supply 547MW of its Series 6 Plus Bifacial cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaics (PV) modules to renewable energy company Birch Creek Energy of St. Louis, Missouri, which develops, finances and owns utility-scale solar and storage projects across the USA...

Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult in Newport, South Wales, UK has appointed Jonathan Flint CBE as the new chair of its board of directors. He will lead the board to help deliver the mission and purpose of CSA Catapult, as well as overseeing the corporate governance of the organization...

Guerrilla RF Inc (GRF) of Greensboro, NC, USA — which develops and manufactures radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for wireless applications — has finalized the acquisition of entire portfolio of gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifiers and front-end modules of Singapore-based Gallium Semiconductor, which designs and manufactures RF GaN products for 5G mobile communications, aerospace & defense, and industrial, scientific & medical (ISM) applications...

For coverage of all the key business and technology developments in compound semiconductors and advanced silicon materials and devices over the last month, subscribe to Semiconductor Today magazine...

Enkris Semiconductor of Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, a pure-play foundry for gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxial wafers, has reached a memorandum of understanding with Incize, Belgium to enter a strategic cooperation on modeling, simulation, and testing of GaN-on-Si epitaxial technology for wireless communication applications...

For first-quarter 2024, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system maker Riber S.A. of Bezons, France has reported revenue of €4.5m, up 20% on €3.7m a year ago...

For full-year 2023, epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK has reported revenue of £115.25m, down 31.2% on 2022’s £167.5m...