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STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland has launched the EVL250WMG1L resonant-converter reference design based on its MasterGaN1L system-in-package (SiP), as the firm continues to accelerate the design of gallium nitride (GaN) power supplies (PSUs) that deliver superior efficiency and power density...

Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA has appointed Dr Ranbir Singh (formerly executive VP at Navitas and founder & CEO of GeneSiC Semiconductor) to its board of directors...

Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA says that its revenue growth has been acknowledged for the third consecutive year by being ranked in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list. Navitas’ growth was driven by strong demand for its high-efficiency, wide-bandgap gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) power components across a growing number of global markets and customers...

Revenue from micro-LED chips will reach about $38.8m in 2024, with large displays remaining the primary contributor, forecasts market research firm TrendForce. Looking ahead, breakthroughs in technical bottlenecks are on the horizon, while applications in automotive displays and the increasing maturity of full-color augmented-reality (AR) glasses solutions are expected to drive the micro-LED chip market to $489.5m by 2028...

As the next step in their strategic co-operation, STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland has reached a multi-year agreement from 2026 to supply its silicon carbide (SiC) power modules to France-based car maker Renault Group as part of the collaboration with Renault’s firm Ampere (which designs, develops and manufactures full electric vehicles) on a powerbox for the inverter of its electric powertrain...

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has approved a ¥70.5bn subsidy for a plan totalling ¥211.6bn ($1.41bn) submitted by automotive supplier DENSO Corp and power electronics manufacturer Fuji Electric Co Ltd for the Japan-based companies to jointly invest in and produce silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors...

As the power handled by transistors increases to meet the needs of new applications, power electronics packaging will increasingly struggle to remove waste heat from the die. Independent power electronics company Quantum Power Transformation (QPT) Ltd of Cambridge, UK — which was founded in 2019 and develops gallium nitride (GaN)-based electric motor controls — has hence filed a patent for a novel way to attach dies to heat spreaders or substrates which are typically aluminium nitride (AlN). Named qAttach, QPT says that this provides a much better way to conduct heat away from the die and also increases reliability as the assembly process places less stress on the substrates, which is one of the biggest challenges faced by the high-power semiconductor packaging industry...

For its fiscal full-year (to end-August), LED chip and component maker SemiLEDs Corp of Hsinchu, Taiwan says that its revenue fell by 13.3% from $5.979m for 2023 to $5.183m for 2024. However, although fiscal fourth-quarter revenue was down on $1.453m in Q4/2023 to $1.324m in Q4/2024, this is level with third-quarter 2024....

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed for MTM Critical Metals Ltd of West Perth, WA, Australia to develop a US-based processing solution using its Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology to recover high-value metals — including gallium, germanium, indium and tin — from various scrap sources provided by Indium Corp of Clinton, NY, USA (a supplier of refined gallium, germanium, indium and other specialty technology metals)...

Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany has won the German Sustainability Award in the ‘Electrical Engineering and Electronics’ category. “Infineon has assumed a leading role in the field of sustainability and serves the sector as a ‘beacon’ for successful transformation,” the judges stated. The German Sustainability Award recognizes companies that make effective and exemplary contributions to transformation and that function as role models within their industry...

At a formal ceremony in Berlin, Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2024 (the German Future Award, the Federal President’s Award for Innovation in Science and Technology) to a team led by Dr Norwin von Malm and Stefan Grötsch of ams OSRAM GmbH of Premstätten, Austria and Munich, Germany and Dr Hermann Oppermann of the Berlin-based Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) for the technological implementation of their idea — an LED matrix that turns car headlights into projectors — which opens up new possibilities for innovative designs due to the high-resolution light distribution and energy efficiency. This is the tenth Deutscher Zukunftspreis for Fraunhofer Institute, and the first for Fraunhofer IZM...

The UK semiconductor industry is at a critical stage in its evolution, according to Martin McHugh, CEO at Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult (a not-for-profit center of excellence established in 2018 by government agency Innovate UK that specializes in the measurement, characterization, integration and validation of compound semiconductor technology spanning power electronics, advanced packaging, radio frequency and microwave, and photonics applications). As Europe, the USA, China, Japan and South Korea invest, there is a significant risk of the UK being left behind, he adds...

Discrete semiconductor and passive electronic component maker Vishay Intertechnology Inc of Malvern, PA, USA is investing £51m in Newport Wafer Fab in South Wales (the UK’s largest semiconductor wafer fabrication facility, which it acquired from Nexperia in March for $177m, or about £142m), bringing new product range capabilities and skilled job opportunities to what is now Newport Vishay...

After completing due diligence, the US Department of Commerce has finalized two direct funding awards under the CHIPS Incentives Program’s Funding Opportunity for Commercial Fabrication Facilities...

Aelum Inc of Goleta, CA, USA – which uses compound semiconductor materials on large-diameter substrates to develop technologies for mobile, automotive, AI, defense & aerospace, communication and quantum computing – has joined Optica, the global society dedicated to advancing optics and photonics worldwide. The corporate membership aligns Aeluma with a network of industry leaders in light science and technology...

AlixLabs AB of Lund, Sweden — which was spun off from Lund University in 2019 and has developed the Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) Pitch Splitting technology (APS) — is participating at SEMICON Japan 2024 at Tokyo Big Sight (11–13 December), marking the public debut for its 300mm wafer process chamber. Its Made in Sweden APS (ALE Pitch Splitting) tools are aimed at allowing the semiconductor industry to scale down to sub-7nm manufacturing processes in a more sustainable way, and is positioned as an alternative to costly double patterning or EUV (extreme ultraviolet) solutions...

Automotive technology firm Valeo and ROHM Semiconductor are collaborating by using their combined expertise in power electronics management to optimize next-generation power modules for electric motor inverters. As a first step, ROHM will provide its 2-in-1 silicon carbide (SiC) molded module TRCDRIVE pack to Valeo for future powertrain solutions...

Sheffield University spin-off Phlux Technology —which designs and manufactures 1550nm avalanche photodiode (APD) infrared sensors — has won an Institute of Physics (IOP) Business Start-Up Award 2024. Presented at the Houses of Parliament in London, the award celebrates young companies leveraging physics for innovation and impact. It recognized Phlux’s Aura family of Noiseless indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) infrared (IR) sensors, which is said to have set new standards for sensitivity and performance in optical systems such as LiDAR, laser range finders, and optical fiber communications test equipment...

POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and light sources for the data-center, telecom and artificial intelligence (AI) markets — is to expand its optical engine production capacity in Malaysia...

Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA — which makes silicon carbide (SiC) materials and power semiconductor devices — has appointed Melissa Garrett as senior VP & general counsel, effective 9 December. She succeeds Brad Kohn, who has resigned from the firm for another professional opportunity..