Semiconductor today

Silanna UV of Brisbane, Australia – which provides far-UVC light sources for water quality sensors, gas sensors, disinfection, and HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) applications – has launched the NozzleShield UV water dispenser disinfection application. The technology uses 235nm-wavelength UV-C LEDs to rapidly disinfect water dispensers, effectively eliminating bacteria and virus buildup. This ensures that water dispensers remain free from harmful bacteria, benefiting companies aiming to enhance their product features...

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 appointed finance executive Mike Byron to its board of directors...

For fiscal first-quarter 2025 (ended 27 December 2024), Skyworks Solutions Inc of Irvine, CA, USA (which manufactures analog and mixed-signal semiconductors) has reported revenue of $1068m, down 11% on $1201.5m a year ago but up 4% on $1025m last quarter and slightly above the midpoint of the $1050–1080m guidance range. This was despite a muted demand environment and ongoing inventory digestion across selective end markets...

Silicon carbide wafer manufacturing technology firm TekSiC AB of Linköping, Sweden has added to its Xforge platform with the Xforge PVT, a compact high-temperature induction heating furnace for crystal growth using physical vapor transport in the semiconductor industry and research institutes. With its design, the Xforge PVT offers versatile configurations, ensuring what is claimed to be peak performance across diverse specialized applications...

The board of directors of Ennostar Inc has approved a restructuring plan that involves the merger of its subsidiaries EPISTAR and Lextar into a single entity tentatively named Ennostar Corp, starting 1 October. The merger aims to accelerate Ennostar’s business expansion in high-value-added optoelectronic applications and to intensify its long-term growth prospects...

NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and develops and manufactures high-power industrial blue lasers — has announced its entry into a commitment letter aimed at expanding its existing defense business and establishing a new presence in the security sector...

University of Michigan researchers are leading a multi-million dollar collaborative effort to develop heat-resistant sensing and computing chips made of silicon carbide (SiC) that could advance aircraft, electric and gas-powered vehicles, renewable energy, defense and space exploration...

Manufacturers of audio equipment constantly seek to enhance sound quality while also meeting the growing demand for compact, lightweight, more integrated and energy-efficient designs. At the same time, they must ensure seamless connectivity, cost-effectiveness and user-friendly functionality, making audio product development more complex than ever...

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA has announced the final amount for the sale (announced on 11 December) of Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production tax credits generated by the production and sale of solar modules in the USA in 2024 by its operational manufacturing footprint in the USA, including three factories in Ohio and a new Alabama facility...

With the exponential growth of AI computing needs, challenges arise in performance and energy efficiency across computing, memory, power supply and the interconnections linking them. STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland says that it is helping hyperscalers, and the leading optical module provider, to overcome these challenges by unveiling its next generation of proprietary technologies for higher-performing optical interconnect in data centers and AI clusters. Its new silicon photonics and next-gen BiCMOS technologies are scheduled to ramp up from second-half 2025 for 800Gb/s and 1.6Tb/s optical modules...

SemiQ Inc of Lake Forest, CA, USA — which designs, develops and manufactures silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors and 150mm SiC epitaxial wafers for high-voltage applications — has announced a family of three 1200V SiC full-bridge modules, each integrating two of the company’s rugged high-speed switching SiC MOSFETs with reliable body diode...

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 received an AUS$120,000 order for semi-custom GaN laser diode bar products from a repeat customer, the College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida...

Lumileds LLC of San Jose, CA, USA says that its new LUXEON HL2X-V is the latest result of its commitment to addressing lighting manufacturing issues. Many manufacturers with high-power LED solutions are considering re-engineering their designs with mid-power LEDs to take advantage of their lumen/$ position. Now, with LUXEON HL2X-V, manufacturers can achieve lm/$ ratios similar to mid-power products without spending valuable resources on redesigning or re-engineering, says the firm...

Multi-color LED fixtures based on a large LED cluster under a single optical system are preferred in many situations for their ability to deliver highly accurate illumination with superior beam quality. Until now, however, LED design has not allowed engineers to address the conflicting needs and challenges inherent to close-packed, high-power LEDs...

Infinera Corp of San Jose, CA, USA — a vertically integrated manufacturer of open optical networking systems and optical semiconductors — says that its pending acquisition by Nokia Corp should be completed on or about 28 February, subject to receipt of remaining outstanding regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other remaining customary closing conditions...

Sivers Semiconductors AB of Kista, Sweden (which supplies RF beam-former ICs for SATCOMs and photonic lasers for AI data centers) has appointed Alexander McCann as a strategic senior advisor to the board and the CEO. His primary focus will be strengthening and scaling photonics operations...

Fabless firm Cambridge GaN Devices Ltd (CGD) — which was spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2016 to design, develop and commercialize power transistors and ICs that use GaN-on-silicon substrates — has closed a $32m Series C funding round led by a strategic investor with participation from British Patient Capital and supported by existing investors Parkwalk, BGF, Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), Foresight Group, and IQ Capital...

Since gallium nitride (GaN) suppliers have taken various approaches to package types and sizes, leading to fragmentation and a lack of multiple footprint-compatible sources for customers, Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany has launched the high-performance CoolGaN G3 Transistor 100V in RQFN 5x6 package (IGD015S10S1) and 80V in RQFN 3.3x3.3 package (IGE033S08S1)...

For fiscal second-quarter 2025 (for continuing operations, to 29 December 2024), Wolfspeed Inc of Durham, NC, USA — which makes silicon carbide (SiC) materials and power semiconductor devices — has reported revenue of $180.5m, down 7% on $194.7m last quarter and 13% on $208.4m a year ago, but slightly above the midpoint of the $160–200m guidance range...

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) says that, at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference & Exposition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco, CA, USA (30 March–3 April), 35 member companies are uniting to demonstrate advancements in interoperability tailored to addressing the growing demands of future-oriented data centers, AI/ML technologies and disaggregated systems...