Semiconductor today

Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes optical and photonic products for optical networks and lasers for industrial and consumer markets) has appointed Jae Kim as senior VP, general counsel & corporate secretary, reporting to president & CEO Alan Lowe. Kim will be responsible for leading Lumentum’s Legal department, including Corporate Affairs, Commercial Transactions, Trade Compliance, and Intellectual Property. He will also be responsible for Facilities, Real Estate and Security...

Market research firm TrendForce’s latest reports indicate a significant turning point for the LED lighting market in 2024, as an estimated quantity of 5.8 billion LED lamps and luminaires reach the end of their lifespan. This is set to trigger a substantial wave of secondary replacements, breathing new life into the market and boosting total LED lighting demand to 13.4 billion units, the firm adds...

After having been informed of the unexpected cancellation of a cornerstone project for its micro-LED program, ams OSRAM GmbH of Premstätten, Austria and Munich, Germany says that it is re-assessing its micro-LED strategy. Discussions with the related customer — reported to be Apple — are ongoing...

Semiconductor production test and reliability qualification equipment supplier Aehr Test Systems of Fremont, CA, USA has shipped the first order from a major silicon photonics customer for a new high-power configuration of its FOX-XP system for volume production wafer-level burn-in and stabilization of next-generation silicon photonics integrated circuits (ICs)...

Wise-integration of Hyeres, France — which was spun off from CEA-Leti in 2020 and designs and develops gallium nitride (GaN) integrated circuits and digital-control technologies for power supplies — has raised €15m in a Series B funding round led by imec.xpand and joined by Supernova Invest, BNP Paribas Developpement, Région Sud Investissement (RSI), Creazur, CASRA Capital and Angels for Greentech...

Japan-based ROHM Semiconductor says that its 650V GaN device (EcoGaN) has been adopted in the C4 Duo, a 45W output USB-C charger from Innergie, a brand of Taiwan-based power supply maker Delta Electronics Inc...

Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA has launched the 100V, 1mΩ EPC2361, which is claimed to be the lowest on-resistance gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistor (FET) on the market, offering double the power density compared with EPC’s prior-generation products...

For coverage of all the key business and technology developments in compound semiconductors and advanced silicon materials and devices over the last month...

Qorvo Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA (which provides core technologies and RF solutions for mobile, infrastructure and defense applications) has announced four 1200V silicon carbide (SiC) modules in a compact E1B package with low on-resistance RDS(on), namely the 19mΩ, 50A UHB50SC12E1BC3N and 9.4mΩ, 100A UHB100SC12E1BC3N half-bridge modules and the 70mΩ, 15A UFB15C12E1BC3N and 35mΩ, 25A UFB25SC12E1BC3N full-bridge modules. The highly efficient SiC modules are suitable for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, energy storage, industrial power supplies and solar power applications...

Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany has launched the 750V G1 discrete CoolSiC MOSFET to meet the increasing demand for higher efficiency and power density in industrial and automotive power applications...

Scintil Photonics of Grenoble, France and Toronto, Canada, a fabless developer of augmented silicon photonic integrated circuits (integrated laser arrays, 800Gb/s transmitters and receivers, tunable transmitters and receivers, as well as optical I/O for near-chip and chip-chip communication), has announced the integration of III-V distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and amplifiers with standard silicon photonics technology in production at foundry Tower Semiconductor, marking a pivotal step in its supply chain...

Fabless design company Ancora Semiconductor Inc (an affiliate of Taiwan-headquartered power supply maker Delta Electronics Inc) recently passed a series of rigorous DMTBF (demonstrated mean time between failures) tests for its double-sided-cooling gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistor. These tests have verified that Ancora components can maintain superior performance over long periods (200,000 hours), highlighting the high reliability and dependability of its products. The product line has been incorporated into the XPG FUSION 1600W Titanium-grade power supply developed in collaboration with Delta Electronics and ADATA Technology Co Ltd...

Power Integrations Inc of San Jose, CA, USA, which provides high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, has launched the InnoMux-2 family of single-stage, independently regulated multi-output offline power-supply ICs. InnoMux-2 ICs consolidate AC–DC and downstream DC–DC conversion stages into a single chip, providing up to three independently regulated outputs for use in white goods, industrial systems, displays and other applications requiring multiple voltages. Elimination of separate DC–DC stages slashes component count, reduces PCB footprint and increases efficiency by as much as 10 percentage points compared with traditional two-stage architectures. Efficiency is aided by the ICs’ 750V PowiGaN gallium nitride transistors, zero-voltage switching (without an active clamp) and synchronous rectification...

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Electricity (OE) has launched the $2.25m American-Made Silicon Carbide (SiC) Packaging Prize. This contest invites competitors to propose, design, build and test state-of-the-art SiC semiconductor packaging prototypes to enable these devices to work more effectively in high-voltage environments such as energy storage. The prize is part of the American-Made Challenges program, which fosters collaboration between the USA’s entrepreneurs and innovators, DOE’s National Labs, and the private sector...

The LED packaging market will rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9% from US$16bn in 2024 to US$19.4bn in 2029, forecasts a new report from MarketsandMarkets...

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA has released what is believed to be the first comprehensive economic analysis of a vertically integrated solar manufacturer’s value chain in the USA. Commissioned by First Solar and conducted by the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the study used IMPLAN economic software to analyze First Solar’s actual and forecasted US spending in 2023 and 2026, when the company expects to have 14GW of annual nameplate capacity across Alabama, Louisiana and Ohio...

In its meeting room (Hall 2, #2D12MR) on the show floor at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona (26–29 February), Finwave Semiconductor Inc of Waltham, MA, USA is hosting demonstrations of its latest technology and products, including unveiling the newest performance benchmarks with its gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology and high-power switches targeting the infrastructure and handset markets...

Arrow Electronics Inc and its engineering services company eInfochips are working with Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany to help eInfochips’ customers accelerate the development of electric vehicle (EV) chargers...

AXT Inc of Fremont, CA, USA – which makes gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) and germanium (Ge) substrates and raw materials – says that its full-year revenue fell by 46.3% from $141.1m in 2022 to $75.8m in 2023...

Compound semiconductor wafer maker SK Siltron CSS of Auburn, MI, USA (a subsidiary of South Korea-based wafer manufacturer SK Siltron, a part of South Korea's second-largest conglomerate SK Group) has secured a conditional commitment from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for a loan of up to $544m...