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Los Angeles-headquartered American Elements says that it will significantly expand production of gallium and germanium from its Salt Lake City plant to address the announcement on 3 July by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) of export control measures on gallium- and germanium-related semiconductor raw materials from 1 August...

Materials, networking and laser technology firm CoherentCorp of Saxonburg, PA, USA (formerly II-VIInc before it acquired Coherent in July 2022) has provided its initial assessment of the export restriction of gallium and germanium from China expected to begin on 1August...

Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) of Yatton, near Bristol, UK has announced a shipment of equipment to the GaN Ecosystem Enabling Centre and Incubator (GEECI) located at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, (CeNSE) Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in Bengaluru...

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 commenced its rights offering (announced on 16 June). If the rights offering is fully subscribed, the firm will receive gross proceeds of $15m, minus expenses related to the rights offering. Transphorm intends to use the net proceeds for working capital and other general corporate purposes...

North America-based producer of gallium nitride (GaN) power devices have responded to China’s imposition of export restrictions on gallium and germanium with statements affirming their continuity of supply...

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA says that on 30 June it entered into a five-year revolving credit and guarantee facility for $1bn. The facility includes up to $250m available for the issuance of letters of credit. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank acted as lead arranger and is administrative agent for the facility...

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA says that Capital Power Corp of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada – which builds, owns and operates 29 utility-scale generation facilities across North America including renewables and thermal – has secured its first order for about 1GWDC of thin-film solar modules. For delivery between 2026 and 2028, the Series 6 Plus modules will support Capital Power’s growing development portfolio...

Renesas Electronics Corp of Tokyo, Japan has executed a wafer supply agreement and $2bn deposit to secure a 10-year supply commitment of silicon carbide bare and epitaxial wafers from Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA, which makes silicon carbide materials as well as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) power-switching & RF semiconductor devices. The supply deal will pave the way for Renesas to scale production of silicon carbide power semiconductors starting in 2025. The signing ceremony was held at Renesas’ headquarters in Tokyo between Renesas’ president & CEO Hidetoshi Shibata and Wolfspeed’s president & CEO Gregg Lowe...

NexGen Power Systems Inc of Santa Clara, CA, USA – which was founded in 2017 to design and manufacture proprietary power conversion devices using patented Vertical GaN (gallium nitride) technologies – says that its collaborative project with General Motors had been awarded funding by the US Department of Energy (DoE) for the development of electric drive systems using its Vertical GaN semiconductors. The joint development project aims to enhance the efficiency, performance and overall sustainability of electric vehicles and intends to focus on power electronics design, motor integration, thermal management and system-level optimization for electric drive systems...

Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor of Torrance, CA, USA and Plexim GmbH of Zurich, Switzerland, which provides design and testing tools for the power conversion industry, have partnered to release GeneSiC G3 SiC MOSFET and Gen 5 MPS diode PLECS thermal loss models for highly accurate simulations of complete power electronics systems...

AXT Inc of Fremont, CA, USA – which makes gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) and germanium (Ge) substrates and raw materials – has addressed the potential impact of the announcement of China’s new export control regulations on gallium- and germanium-related materials, which take effect on 1 August...

IC and integrated module supplier Sivers Semiconductors AB of Kista, Sweden says that its subsidiary Sivers Photonics of Glasgow, Scotland, UK has received a new order worth $1m (about SEK11m) from silicon photonics-based chip-to-chip optical connectivity firm Ayar Labs of Santa Clara, CA, USA for the development of laser arrays that support applications including high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML). The order deepens Sivers’ strategic collaboration with Ayar Labs, which is working on scaling its in-package optical I/O solution for volume production...

For its fiscal fourth-quarter 2023 (to end-March), 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 reported revenue of $3.192m, down on $4.493m last quarter and $4.927m a year ago. However, this was impacted primarily by a government contract delay (the revenue from which will be recognized starting in fiscal first-quarter 2024). Product revenue was at the targeted $3.2m...

Celestial AI of Santa Clara, CA, USA, creator of the Photonic Fabric, has raised $100m in Series B funding led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) and Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund. Other major investors in the round include Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, The Engine Fund, imec.xpand, M Ventures and Tyche Partners. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology platform delivers optical connectivity performance levels that are claimed to be ten years more advanced than existing technology offerings...

NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which conducts research, development, design and manufacturing of high-power, high-brightness industrial blue lasers — says that, subsequent to the purchase agreement announced on 12 June that raised $7.925m, on 16 June, it entered into an additional note and warrant purchase agreement with certain investors including existing investors, for the sale of (i) convertible promissory notes worth a total of $1.3m, and (ii) warrants to purchase up to 1,889,535 shares of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share. ..

Global chainsaw market leader STIHL of Waiblingen near Stuttgart has honored Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany as ‘Supplier of the Year 2022’ for being a highly reliable partner in terms of quality and delivery capability, even in a challenging environment. Infineon not only supports STIHL's battery strategy as a main supplier in the semiconductor segment, but also collaborates closely with STIHL in R&D. The collaboration is to generate innovations in energy-efficient motor control for battery-powered tools using compound semiconductors based on gallium nitride (GaN)...

Mojo Vision Inc of Saratoga, CA, USA — which is developing and commercializing micro-LED display technology for consumer, enterprise and government applications — claims that it has made an important step in overcoming challenges of delivering high-performance and reliable full-color micro-LED displays by powering the world’s highest-density (14K ppi) red micro-LED micro-display...

Singapore-based Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc (K&S) — which designs and manufactures semiconductor, LED and electronic assembly equipment — has launched several new systems and capabilities serving high-volume semiconductor and fast-growing power-semiconductor applications...

Epitaxial deposition and process equipment maker Veeco Instruments Inc of Plainview, NY, USA has received an order from Denmark-based Quantum Foundry Copenhagen P/S for multiple GEN20 molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) systems. The multi-process module system is scheduled for delivery in 2024. The GEN20-Q MBE system, a purpose-built GEN20 MBE reactor designed for the growth of quantum technologies, was selected to enable the development of fault-tolerant quantum computing hardware to support life-science and biological applications...

EV Group of St Florian, Austria – a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for semiconductor, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology applications – has again been voted by customers as one of the ‘10 BEST Focused Suppliers of Chip Making Equipment’ and one of ‘THE BEST Suppliers of Fab Equipment’ in the 2023 TechInsights Customer Satisfaction Survey, increasing its score in both award segments compared with last year’s listings as well as earning a 5 Star rating in both segments for the second time in a row. EVG also received a ‘RANKED 1st in Specialty Fab Equipment’ award again, marking the 11th consecutive year that it has received all three customer satisfaction awards...