Semiconductor today

Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA — which makes silicon carbide (SiC) materials and power semiconductor devices — has taken the next step to implement its previously announced restructuring support agreement (RSA) with key lenders, including (i) holders of more than 97% of its senior secured notes, (ii) Renesas Electronics Corp’s US subsidiary and (iii) convertible debtholders holding more than 67% of the outstanding convertible notes...

Flexible integrated circuit (FlexIC) designer and manufacturer Pragmatic Semiconductor Ltd of Cambridge, UK has appointed John Quigley as executive VP (EVP) of engineering with responsibility for technology development, IC design and applications engineering...

The South Wales-based compound semiconductor cluster CSconnected, in partnership with Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), has announced the first four successful applicants to its £1m Supply Chain Development Programme, aimed at strengthening and scaling the compound semiconductor supply chain in South Wales...

GlobalFoundries of Malta, NY, (GF, the only US-based pure-play foundry with a global manufacturing footprint including facilities in the USA, Europe and Singapore) plans to invest another $3bn in its expansion of semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities across its facilities in New York and Vermont...

III–V Epi Ltd of Glasgow, Scotland, UK — which provides a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) service for custom compound semiconductor wafer design, manufacturing, test and characterization — says that it is bringing crucial, independent, epitaxial manufacturing expertise to the University of Glasgow’s Critical Technologies Accelerator (CTA) program...

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in the USA have fabricated blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) down to an unprecedented 250nm in size, a critical step for next-generation technologies like ultra-high-resolution displays and advanced optical communication. However, their study reveals a significant challenge: a sharp ‘efficiency cliff’ when these LEDs are scaled to submicron dimensions...

SuperLight Photonics of Enschede, the Netherlands — a spin-off from the University of Twente that is developing a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) wideband laser light source for measurement and detection applications — has unveiled the SLP-1050 compact, high-performance light source, purpose-built for demanding high-speed measurement applications...

Fabless company Wise-integration of Hyeres, France — which was spun off from CEA-Leti in 2020 and designs and develops digital control for gallium nitride (GaN) and GaN IC-based power supplies — has released to production its first fully digital controller, WiseWare 1.1 (WIW1101), based on a 32-bit MCU. This enables high-frequency operation up to 2MHz, unlocking what are claimed to be new levels of power density, efficiency and form factor in compact AC–DC power converters...

EFFECT Photonics b.v. – a spin off from the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e) in The Netherlands that provides next-generation coherent optical solutions for data-center and edge networks – has raised an additional $24m as part of its Series D financing round. This brings the total raised in the round to $62m...

InnoScience (Suzhou) Technology Holding Co Ltd — which manufactures gallium nitride on silicon (GaN) power chips on 8” silicon wafers — and Midea (the largest producer of home appliances and industrial robots) have reached a strategic collaboration and agreed to jointly invest resources to focus on expanding the adoption of GaN in new applications such as home appliances, kitchen appliances and other fields...

BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia — which develops and manufactures gallium nitride (GaN) blue laser diodes based on its proprietary low-temperature, low-hydrogen remote-plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) technology — has closed its share purchase plan (SPP), raising $5.3m before costs. The SPP followed a $2.3m placement to institutional and sophisticated investors at the beginning of May, raising a total of $7.6m...

Funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program as a collaborative research and innovation initiative (grant agreement n°101016138), the recently concluded 42-month project ELENA (‘European electro-optic and nonlinear PIC platform based on lithium niobate’) has developed the first European-made lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) substrates for photonic integrated circuits (PICs), establishing a complete European supply chain for thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) technology...

EPC Space LLC of Haverhill, MA, USA (which provides high-reliability radiation-hardened enhancement-mode gallium nitride-on-silicon transistors and ICs for power management in space and other harsh environments) has launched the EPC7030MSH, a rad-hard (RH) 300V GaN FET that delivers what is claimed to be unmatched performance for high-voltage, high-power space applications, including next-generation satellite power plants and electric propulsion systems...

Silvaco Group Inc of Santa Clara, CA, USA — which provides technology computer-aided design (TCAD), electronic design automation (EDA) software and semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) for process and device development — has announced a strategic R&D collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) of Itzehoe, Germany, which develops and manufactures customer-specific components for power electronics and microsystems technology...

Gallium nitride (GaN) will likely be key for the next generation of high-speed communication systems and the power electronics needed for state-of-the-art data centers, but its high cost and the specialization required to incorporate it into conventional electronics have limited its use in commercial applications, notes the USA’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)...

Photonic chips industry accelerator PhotonDelta of Eindhoven, the Netherlands (which connects and collaborates with an ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations worldwide) and Luminate NY of Rochester, NY, USA (the world’s largest accelerator for startups working on optics, photonics and imaging-enabled technologies) have entered into a strategic collaboration to support the growth of early-stage photonics companies across North America and the Netherlands...

The UK Government says that Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult will mobilize the new UK Semiconductor Centre (UKSC)...

At the end of this year, research institute TNO (the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research in Delft) will begin constructing a pilot manufacturing line for photonic chips at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. The new factory will enable the industrial-scale production of indium phosphide (InP)-based photonic chips. Additionally, the scaling up from 4-inch to 6-inch wafers will make production more efficient. TNO is collaborating on this with the Photonic Integration Technology Centre (PITC), Eindhoven University of Technology, and the University of Twente...

Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA — which makes enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) and integrated circuits for power management applications — has released the EPC91109, a high-performance evaluation board designed to demonstrate the benefits of eGaN FETs in a compact, thermally efficient, two-phase synchronous buck converter. Targeting USB Power Delivery (USB-PD 3.1) applications up to 180W, the EPC91109 is optimized for space- and power-constrained designs such as laptops, portable devices, and battery-powered systems...

The University of Massachusetts Lowell says that Electrical Engineering assistant professor Anhar Bhuiyan is among 36 recipients of this year’s Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards, nationally competitive seed grants for faculty in the first two years of their academic careers. The award supports Bhuiyan’s research into next-generation materials and components for powering satellites and unmanned spacecraft...