Semiconductor today

Altum RF (which designs RF, microwave and millimeter-wave semiconductors) has successfully renewed its ISO 9001:2015 certification. Valid through 2029, the firm says its renewal highlights its ongoing commitment to quality, reliability and excellence across its global operations, including its headquarter and design center in Eindhoven, Netherlands and the design center in Sydney, Australia...

Swansea University is to lead a major national initiative to address the UK’s semiconductor skills gap with the launch of a new Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in semiconductor skills...

Atlantic Alumina Company LLC (ATALCO), the only operating alumina refinery in the USA, has announced a partnership with the United States Department of War (DOW) and Concord Resources Holdings Ltd, in conjunction with Concord’s majority shareholder (a fund managed by commodities investment firm Pinnacle Asset Management L.P.), to sustain and increase domestic alumina production and establish the USA’s first large-scale primary gallium production circuit in Gramercy, Louisiana...

Enphase Energy Inc of Fremont, CA, USA (which supplies microinverter-based solar and battery systems) has begun production shipments of its IQ9N-3P Commercial Microinverter across the USA in late December. The product is manufactured in the USA to support domestic content requirements and Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) compliance for eligible commercial solar projects. This is Enphase’s first microinverter powered by gallium nitride (GaN) technology and designed for three-phase 480Y/277 V (wye) grid configurations, without using external transformers...

In a trading update for full-year 2025, epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK says it saw strong trading momentum in second-half 2025 due to faster-than- expected funding releases for some US military and defence programs, previously anticipated for 2026...

The US subsidiary of BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia and North Carolina State University (NCSU) have extended their existing contract to include a third year, valued at A$1.05m (US$680,000). Under the extension, BluGlass will continue developing gallium nitride (GaN) lasers to support defence, quantum, and dual-use technology development for the US Department of War (DoW) as part of the Commercial Leap Ahead for Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (CLAWS) Hub, which is led by NCSU...

US President Donald Trump has issued an executive order requiring Delaware-registered optical communications device developer and manufacturer HieFo Corp of Alhambra, CA, USA to divest the assets it acquired when it was formed on 30 April 2024 through a management buy-out of the digital chips business line and indium phosphide (InP) wafer fabrication operations of New Jersey-based Emcore Corp...

Perceptra of Oakland, CA, USA — which was spun off from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2021 to pioneer photonic chip-based AI-enabled Raman sensors for chemical monitoring — has secured a €1.2m investment from photonic chip industry accelerator PhotonDelta of Eindhoven, the Netherlands (which connects and collaborates with an ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations worldwide)...

For fourth-quarter 2025, AXT Inc of Fremont, CA, USA — which makes gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) and germanium (Ge) substrates and raw materials at plants in China — has updated its expectations for revenue to $22.5–23.5m, primarily due to fewer export control permits for indium phosphide being issued by China’s Ministry of Commerce than previously expected...

Japan-based Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd is participating at SPIE Photonics West 2026 in The Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA, USA (20–22 January), focusing on its compound semiconductor products...

Marktech Optoelectronics Inc of Latham, NY, USA and its device manufacturing partner Optrans Corp of Kawasaki-Shi, Japan are introducing new transfer-molded photodiode and LED packaging capabilities, which are currently under development and scheduled for first customer availability in second-quarter 2026. The next-generation photonics packages offer improved reliability, optical beam control, enhanced environmental robustness, and reduced stray-light interference while supporting both conventional LED emitters and advanced point-source resonant-cavity light-emitting diode (RCLED) and quantum well light-emitting diode (QWLED) architectures...

At Photonics West 2026 in San Francisco, CA, USA, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) of Berlin, Germany is delivering 20 scientific presentations at the conferences (17–22 January) and exhibiting at the trade fair (20–22 January)...

Phlux Technology — which was spun off from the University of Sheffield in 2020 and designs and manufactures 1550nm avalanche photodiode (APD) infrared (IR) sensors — is showcasing its Aura family of Noiseless InGaAs APDs in booth 5528 at SPIE Photonics West 2026 in San Francisco, CA, USA (20-22 January)...

To pioneer semiconductor manufacturing in space, Aegis Aerospace Inc of Webster, TX, USA (which provides technical services and turn-key solutions to government and commercial space & defense customers) has partnered with United Semiconductors LLC (USLLC, which since 2005 has been supplying the US defense sector and national laboratories with critical substrates from its production facility in Los Alamitos, CA, USA)...

Publicly traded mineral exploration company Germanium Mining Corp of Vancouver, BC, Canada has been accepted as a new member of the US National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), which supports collaboration across industry, government and academia to strengthen US national security and the defense industrial base. Germanium Mining Corp is already a member of the Nevada Mining Association...

Vitrealab GmbH of Vienna, Austria, a developer of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for laser–LCoS-based augmented reality (AR) light engines, has closed a significantly oversubscribed $11m Series A financing round, led by LIFTT Italian Venture Capital and LIFTT EuroInvest with participation from Constructor Capital, aws Gründungsfonds, Gateway Ventures, PhotonVentures, xista Science Ventures, Moveon Technologies, and Hermann Hauser Investment...

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 appointed Fabio Necco as chief executive officer. The move is designed to drive forward CGD’s entry into key markets...

Mission Microwave Technologies LLC of Cypress, CA, USA has been awarded a contract to design and deliver solid-state power block upconverters (BUCs) for the Telesat Lightspeed Landing Stations...

TCL Technology’s Shenzhen-based subsidiary TCL China Star Optoelectronic Technology Co Ltd (TCL CSOT) recently acquired an 80% equity stake — along with creditor rights — in Fujian Prima Optoelectronics Co Ltd (also known as Fujian ZhaoYuan Optoelectronics). This transaction marks TCL CSOT’s formal entry into the LED chip segment. It represents a critical step toward completing a vertically integrated supply chain spanning from LED chips to mini-LED video wall applications, notes market analyst firm TrendForce...

AXT Inc of Fremont, CA, USA — which makes gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP) and germanium (Ge) substrates and raw materials at plants in China — has closed its underwritten public offering of 8,163,265 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $12.25 per share, including the full exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase an additional 1,064,773 shares. The firm received total gross proceeds of about $100m, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses...