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NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and develops and manufactures high-power industrial blue lasers — has appointed Brian Knaley as chief executive officer, replacing Dr Mark Zediker, who has left the firm to pursue other opportunities. Knaley has also joined NUBURU’s board of directors...

First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA has agreed to supply Boston-based utility-scale clean energy developer, owner and operator Swift Current Energy with 500MW of Series 7 cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules. Swift Current Energy previously placed orders for 3.3GW of First Solar modules in 2022. This latest order, which was booked prior to the release of First Solar’s third-quarter 2023 results on 31 October, will see modules delivered between 2027 and 2028...

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 entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Cloud Light Technology Ltd of Hong Kong (which designs and makes optical modules for automotive sensors and data-center interconnect applications) in a transaction worth about $750m (subject to certain adjustments)...

ELEMENT 3–5 GmbH says that its innovative Next Level Epitaxy (NLE) technology enables the reduction of the total manufacturing cost, energy and environmental impact of light-emitting diodes (LED), high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) for high-power applications, and life-time expanding layers in batteries...

Spectris group firm Malvern Panalytical of Malvern, UK, a supplier of analytical instrumentation, has acquired the product line for six X-ray diffraction (XRD) products from Freiberg Instruments GmbH...

Power Integrations Inc of San Jose, CA, USA, which provides high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, has released what it claims is the world’s highest-voltage, single-switch gallium nitride (GaN) power supply IC, featuring a 1250V PowiGaN switch...

SuperLight Photonics of Enschede, the Netherlands — a spin-off from the University of Twente that is developing a wideband laser light source for measurement and detection applications — has completed a seed investment round led by DeepTechXL in collaboration with regional development agency Oost NL (operating on behalf of the Province of Gelderland, the Province of Overijssel, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate). SuperLight Photonics reckons that it will hence be able to further develop its platform technology into unique products and (sub)systems...

Worldwide smartphone shipments declined by 0.1% year-on-year to 302.8 million units in third-quarter 2023, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Although macro-economic uncertainties linger as markets struggle with soft demand, inflation and geopolitical tensions, healthy inventory and the slower pace of decline are encouraging some vendors to increase shipments...

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says that it has been able to extract some extra efficiency out of its solar cells through careful design of the materials in the cell stack...

Transphorm Inc of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which designs and manufactures JEDEC- and AEC-Q101-qualified gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors (FETs) for high-voltage power conversion —has introduced the SuperGaN TOLT FET...

NS Nanotech Canada Inc in Montréal, Québec (founded in November 2022) has been awarded a two-year Alliance Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for research into the development of nanoscale light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers. NSERC and parent firm NS Nanotech Inc of Ann Arbor, MI, USA (founded in 2017) have committed a total of CDN$1m in funding and in-kind contributions. The firm co-applied for the grant with professor Songrui Zhao of McGill University in Montréal. ..

Excelitas Technologies Corp of Waltham, MA, USA (which provides customized photonic solutions to OEMs) has appointed Ron Keating as its new chief executive officer and Ben Stas as chief financial officer...

A consortium led by the University of Vermont (UVM) — and including GlobalFoundries, the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, and the Vermont State College System — has been designated as one of 31 Tech Hubs by the US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), unlocking the opportunity for up to $75m in federal grant funding to further research in semiconductor technology...

At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) meeting on 20 October, shareholders of ams OSRAM GmbH of Premstätten, Austria and Munich, Germany approved (“with a large majority and without any contestation”) a proposed rights issue of €800m, expected to take place this fall/winter 2023/24 (subject to market conditions)...

ams OSRAM GmbH of Premstätten, Austria and Munich, Germany is expanding its series of LED retrofit lamps. With the street-approved OSRAM NIGHT BREAKER H1-LED, drivers can legally, easily and cost-effectively upgrade their conventional H1 halogen low-beam and high-beam head-lights to LED technology...

ams OSRAM GmbH of Premstätten, Austria and Munich, Germany has launched the NIGHT BREAKER H4-LED as its first street-approved LED retrofit lamps for motorcycles, enabling motorcyclists to legally, easily and cost-effectively upgrade their conventional H4 halogen low- and high-beam lamps to LED technology. The NIGHT BREAKER family is already used by motorists...

Luminus Devices Inc of Sunnyvale, CA, USA – which designs and makes LEDs and solid-state technology (SST) light sources for illumination markets – has announced the immediate availability of the SST-12, a high-power white LED featuring a patented round emitter that is claimed to set a new standard in directional lighting by significantly enhancing the quality and brightness of beam spots. Compared with square-shaped emitters, the SST-12’s round emitter offers advantages: its compatibility with typically round-shaped optics results in superior brightness and color uniformity within beam spots, and it provides a tighter beam angle and longer beam distance, making it a suitable choice for a wide range of directional lighting applications...

STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland has released the ACEPACK DMT-32 family of silicon carbide (SiC) power modules in a 32-pin, dual-inline, molded, through-hole package for automotive applications. Targeted at systems such as on-board chargers (OBC), DC/DC converters, fluid pumps and air conditioning, they are said to deliver advantages including high power density, very compact design, and simplified assembly. ST says that the product family enhances flexibility for system designers by presenting a choice of four-pack, six-pack and totem-pole configurations...

Power semiconductor IC supplier onsemi of Phoenix, AZ, USA has completed expansion of its silicon carbide (SiC) fabrication facility in Bucheon, South Korea (claimed to be the world’s largest SiC wafer fabrication plant). At full capacity, the plant will be able to manufacture more than 1 million 200mm SiC wafers per year. To support the ramp in SiC manufacturing capacity, onsemi plans to hire up to 1000 local employees over the next three years to fill the mostly highly technical positions – a more than 40% increase over the present workforce of about 2300....

Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany has closed its acquisition (announced on 2 March) of GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) for US$830m, funded from existing liquidity in an all-cash transaction. All required regulatory clearances have been obtained and GaN Systems is now part of Infineon...