Semiconductor today

Aeluma 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 been awarded a contract by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop quantum dot photonic integrated circuits (PICs) on silicon. The technology targets next-generation space and aerospace applications, enabling capabilities such as free-space laser communication, autonomous navigation, and precision sensing...

Following the completion of due diligence, the US Department of Commerce has confirmed the award (proposed in February) of up to $1.5bn in direct funding through the US CHIPS and Science Act to New York-headquartered GlobalFoundries (GF, the only US-based pure-play foundry with a global manufacturing footprint including facilities in the USA, Europe and Singapore)...

US Geological Survey (USGS) researchers have developed a new model to assess how disruptions of critical mineral supplies may affect the US economy. Using the model, the researchers estimate that there could be a $3.4bn decrease in US gross domestic product (GDP) if China implements a total ban on exports of gallium and germanium...

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) has announced up to $10m in federal funding to accelerate the early-stage technology R&D necessary to reduce material criticality for energy innovations requiring critical materials – rare-earth elements, gallium, and copper...

The Public Authorities Board (PAB) of the Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) has selected the consortium with which it will start negotiations to establish the Advanced Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) pilot line for Europe (PIXEurope), which will be jointly funded by the European Union, through the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programs, Chips JU participating states, and private organizations...

ams OSRAM GmbH of Premstätten, Austria and Munich, Germany says that its OSLON Black Flat S family of LEDs has established itself as a light source for forward lighting in both four- and two-wheeled vehicles, since its robust black leadframe QFN package is suited to automated SMT assembly, and is claimed to offer excellent contrast for use in reflector-based lamps...

ASMPT Ltd says that its new high-precision AMICRA NANO die and flip-chip bonder has been specially developed for the production of co-packaged optics where optical and electronic components are integrated in a common housing. With what is claimed to be exceptional process stability and a placement accuracy of ±0.2μm @ 3σ, the bonding system is equipped for the communication technology of the future...

Tokyo-based automated semiconductor test & measurement equipment maker Advantest Corp has unveiled the Wave Scale RF20ex instrument for the V93000 EXA Scale platform, enabling customers to test virtually any type of radio frequency (RF) device using a single instrument...

Specialty analog foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd of Migdal Haemek, Israel has begun volume production of 1.6Tbps silicon photonic products for multiple lead customers based on its latest silicon photonics (SiPho) platform. The firm’s latest platform includes innovations that have helped to double data rates relative to its existing 800Gpbs high-volume products. These innovations have been developed in close collaboration with several tier-1 customers that have designed breakthrough 1.6Tbps products on this enhanced platform and have now begun to order production quantities...

Materials, networking and laser technology firm Coherent Corp of Saxonburg, PA, USA has announced the production release of high-speed indium phosphide (InP) photodiodes...

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) — has been granted SEK4m (about €345,000) in funding from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova. The funding is spread out over three years, with SEK658,000 (~€56,000) credited immediately, with the remainder to follow over the coming three years. The funds will help AlixLabs to advance its APS technology to a higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and to strengthen customer engagement efforts...

Scintil Photonics of Grenoble, France and Toronto, Canada, a fabless developer of augmented silicon photonic integrated circuits, has appointed Matt Crowley as chief executive officer and established a US subsidiary to support its expanding customer base in data centers, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)...

In a trading update, epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK says it expects revenue for full-year 2024 of about £115m, roughly flat with 2023’s £115.3m (rather than September’s forecast of year-on-year growth, to the lower end of analysts’ forecast of £130–153.7m). “In line with the rest of the industry, we are continuing to see a slower-than-anticipated recovery in key sectors driven by weak consumer demand in end markets,” the firm says. IQE expects this to result in an adjusted EBITDA of at least £5m (up from 2023’s £4.3m, albeit below analysts’ forecast in April of £11.1–16.6m)...

Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA — which makes silicon carbide (SiC) materials and power semiconductor devices — says that its board of directors has determined and agreed with Gregg Lowe that in November he will depart from his roles as president & CEO and as a member of the board. Hence, with the support of a global executive search firm, the board is seeking to identify a permanent CEO...

For third-quarter 2024, deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE of Herzogenrath, near Aachen, Germany has reported revenue of €156.3m (up 18.6% on €131.8m last quarter but down 5% on €165m a year ago). This is in the lower half of the guidance range of €150–180m, as the delivery of a major micro-LED-related project was postponed from Q3 to Q4/2024 at the customer’s request...

For third-quarter 2024, CVD Equipment Corp of Central Islip, NY, USA (a designer and maker of chemical vapor deposition, thermal processing, physical vapor transport, gas and chemical delivery control systems, and other equipment and process solutions for developing and manufacturing materials and coatings) has reported revenue of $8.2m, up 31.4% on $6.2m a year ago. Growth is due mainly to higher CVD Equipment system revenue and an increase in gas delivery system revenue by the SDC segment, plus $0.8m from a modification of a customer contract...

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has invested an additional $160m of funds from the Biden–Harris Administration’s ‘Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) and Science Act’ to advance US microelectronics capabilities through the Microelectronics Commons, a collaborative national network of technology hubs. Following the award in September of $269m for 33 new technical projects and the award of just under $240m released a year previously to initially launch the eight hubs, the latest funding in October represents a milestone for the CHIPS Act’s mission to strengthen the USA’s global leadership in microelectronics and semiconductor manufacturing...

In booth #810 at Supercomputing 2024 (SC24) in Atlanta, GA, USA (17–22 November), silicon photonics-based chip-to-chip optical connectivity firm Ayar Labs of San Jose, CA, USA is demonstrating a broad range of optical I/O implementations for AI scale-up fabrics. The firm’s optical I/O solution is said to eliminate the inefficiencies, high power consumption and increasing costs of copper interconnects and pluggable optics, boosting the performance and economics of AI infrastructure. At SC24, Ayar Labs is featuring its technology in various AI infrastructure concepts with Fujitsu Ltd, Intel Foundry, Corning Inc, Altera, and others...

Governor Greg Abbott says that the first Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund (TSIF) grant of $4,120,000 has been extended to Intelligent Epitaxy Technology Inc (IntelliEPI) of Richardson, TX, USA — which manufactures molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown epitaxial wafers for telecoms, photonics, radio frequency and microwave technologies — for its new 30,000ft2 wafer production facility in Allen, Texas, which is expected to create more than $41m in capital investment and to nearly triple the company’s annual wafer production. Abbott signed into law the Texas CHIPS Act in June 2023, establishing the TSIF as well as the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium...

Fabless company Wise-integration of Hyeres, France — which was spun off from CEA-Leti in 2020 and designs and develops digital-control of gallium nitride (GaN) and GaN integrated circuits for power conversion — has opened its North American Design & Development Center in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Led by Christian Cojocaru and staffed by experts in analog and digital technology design, the center will drive development of the firm’s design portfolio for the next generations of WiseGan...