Semiconductor today

EV Group of St Florian, Austria – a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for semiconductor, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanotechnology applications – has established the EVG Academy, a training facility for customers that provides technical training on all classes of EVG equipment as well as on the firm’s CIM Framework software platform in an optimized environment...

Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes photonic products for optical networks and lasers in industrial and consumer markets) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Coherent Inc of Santa Clara, CA (which provides lasers and laser-based technology for scientific, commercial and industrial applications) for $5.7bn ($100 per share in cash and 1.1851 shares of Lumentum common stock for each Coherent share, as unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies). The transaction value represents a premium of 49% to Coherent’s closing price on 15 January. At closing, Coherent’s stockholders are expected to own about 27% of the combined company...

Altum RF of Eindhoven, The Netherlands (a supplier of high-performance RF to millimeter-wave solutions for next-generation markets and applications) has announced a successful ISO 9001:2015 surveillance audit of its quality management system. The audit reported no deviations, demonstrating the continual focus on the quality, reliability and performance of its design and development of semiconductor products, the firm says...

POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the data-center and telecom markets — has opened a product design and development center in Shenzhen, China, which will be focused on the optical engine, reference designs for customer applications, and new product activities...

While major OEMs such as Apple and Samsung prepare to release their new notebook computers, tablets and TVs fully equipped with mini-LED backlights this year, various companies in the LED supply chain began procuring mini-LED chips ahead of time in fourth-quarter 2020, leading to explosive growth in demand for these chips, which in turn crowded out LED suppliers’ production capacities for other mainstream LED chips, according to the latest investigations by market research firm TrendForce. Given this industry-wide shortage of LED chips, certain suppliers have been raising their quoted price by about 5-10%, it is estimated, for chips supplied to non-core clients and chips with relatively low gross margins...

Power semiconductor maker ROHM of Kyoto, Japan has held an opening ceremony announcing the recent completion (in December) of its new five-storey building at ROHM Apollo’s plant in Chikugo, Fukuoka, which will boost the firm’s silicon carbide (SiC) power device production capacity (after it enters operation in 2022)...

For its fiscal first-quarter 2021 (ended 30 November 2020), LED chip and component maker SemiLEDs Corp of Hsinchu, Taiwan has reported revenue of $719,000, approximately halving from $1.4m last quarter and $1.563m a year ago...

AKHAN Semiconductor Inc of Gurnee, IL, USA – which was founded in 2013 and specializes in the fabrication and application of lab-grown, electronics-grade diamond as functional semiconductors – has been issued additional patents for invention by the Taiwan and Korean Intellectual Property Offices...

II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA, which supplies optoelectronic devices and micro-optics, says that it was twice recognized at a recent industry awards ceremony in China...

Monolithic Power Systems Inc (MPS) of Kirkland, WA, USA has launched a family of 48V–6V digital DC-DC power modules for 48V data center solutions that use enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN) power field-effect transistors (FETs) from Efficient Power Conversion Corp (EPC) of El Segundo, CA, USA. The power modules target applications for high-density computing and data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and multi-user gaming...

In February, Ushio Inc of Tokyo, Japan is releasing the SMBB850DS-1200 series of 850nm infrared LED packages. Intended for imaging and analysis under infrared (IR) illumination using surveillance cameras, automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) and other similar devices, the new product has achieved both narrow-angle irradiation (down to ±19°) and record power output for a 850nm infrared LEDs, of 4W per package in continuous-wave operation (three times that of conventional LEDs) and 19W per package in pulsed operation (about five times that of conventional LEDs)...

Guerrilla RF Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA – a provider of radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for wireless applications – has introduced the GRF5508 and GRF5510, two of ten new ¼W linear power amplifiers being released as part of its expansion into the cellular market (following the GRF5507, launched last August)...

In an update on its laser diode business, BluGlass Ltd of Silverwater, Australia has reported the recent demonstration of strong output power from its standard 405nm laser design...

Riber S.A. of Bezons, France – which manufactures molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) systems as well as evaporation sources and effusion cells – says that it has received an order from a sciences and technology university in Asia for a model C21 DZ research system, for delivery in 2021...

Skyworks Solutions Inc of Woburn, MA, USA (which manufactures analog and mixed-signal semiconductors) says that it has now shipped more than 1 million units of its SKY66318-21 power amplifier (PA), which is claimed to be the first high-efficiency small-cell PA with a bandwidth of 200MHz at +28dBm. Skyworks says that the milestone highlights it accelerating the adoption of 5G by enabling enhanced 5G connections and powering more efficient range extension for small cells...

Crystal IS Inc of Green Island, NY, USA, which makes proprietary ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UVC LEDs), and its parent company Asahi Kasei have announced the second round of their UV Accelerator funding initiative for supporting the development of new disinfection products that use ultraviolet-C (UVC) LEDs. Following the funding of two companies in the first round (launched in June 2020), the endeavor again aims to team up with innovative companies that have ideas for new applications of UVC LEDs in a post-COVID world by providing investments of up to $250,000 per company...

High-performance sensor designer and manufacturer ams AG of Premstaetten, Austria has introduced the EGA2000 family of infrared vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) flood illuminators, which can help industrial manufacturers to develop new applications for robots, cobots (collaborative robots), autonomous guided vehicles (AGV) and smart devices that perform 2D and 3D optical sensing...

POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the data-center and telecom markets — is to hold a special meeting of shareholders on 19 February in order to seek their authorization to enable the board of directors (within its sole discretion) to consolidate the firm’s issued and outstanding common shares, on the basis of a ratio to be determined from within a range of ratios to be proposed at the Special Meeting...

Skyworks Solutions Inc of Woburn, MA, USA (which manufactures analog and mixed-signal semiconductors) says that its high-performance Wi-Fi 6E front-end modules are featured on the first ultra-fast Wi-Fi 6E gaming router from ASUS...

GaN Systems Inc of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (a fabless developer of gallium nitride-based power switching semiconductors for power conversion and control applications) has released two 650V half-bridge daughter cards (30A and 60A), which provide a versatile platform for evaluating GaN drivers and transistors...