Semiconductor today

Following joint R&D work, VIGO Photonics S.A. of Ożarów Mazowiecki, Poland (which manufactures mid-infrared detectors, dedicated modules and semiconductor materials) has entered into a strategic framework agreement with PCO S.A. (a Polish manufacturer of optoelectronic solutions for the military). The document defines the terms and conditions of long-term cooperation, targeting the final development of arrays in line with PCO’s demand, followed by their production and sale. The estimated value of the contract is almost PLN200m. The product, created by VIGO Photonics, could be a key piece of equipment for modern military thermal imaging cameras, it is reckoned...

Engineered substrate manufacturer Soitec of Bernin, near Grenoble, France says that it welcomes recent industry steps to accelerate development and commercialization of co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions for data centers...

Comptek Solutions Oy of Turku, Finland (which specializes in III-V compound semiconductor quantum surface engineering) has launched its industrial-grade Kontrox LASE 16. Following significant advances in optimizing Kontrox technology for passivating edge-emitting lasers, the Kontrox LASE 16 is designed to transform laser facet processing, providing manufacturers with a more efficient and cost-effective solution for enhanced laser diode performance...

Photonic chips industry accelerator PhotonDelta of Eindhoven, the Netherlands (which connects and collaborates with an ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations worldwide) has established a strategic collaboration with Silicon Catalyst, the world’s only incubator and accelerator focused on the global semiconductor industry. Over the last five years, PhotonDelta has raised nearly $1.5bn to accelerate the commercialization of the photonics industry...

Marktech Optoelectronics Inc of Latham, NY, USA, a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of optoelectronics components and assemblies, has released a new series of mid-wave infrared (MWIR) LEDs in rugged, hermetically sealed TO-can packages, engineered to meet the rigorous demands of gas sensing and chemical analysis in industrial environments...

Marking a milestone in its strategic expansion into the defense sector, NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and develops and manufactures high-power industrial blue lasers — has signed a joint pursuit agreement (JPA) with a defense-tech company. This follows completion of an initial 20% acquisition interest in a defense and security hub, announced on 12 March...

STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland and InnoScience (Suzhou) Technology Holding Co Ltd - which manufactures gallium nitride (GaN) power chips on 8” silicon wafers - have signed an agreement on GaN technology development and manufacturing, leveraging the strengths of each company to enhance GaN power solutions and supply chain resilience...

Automated test solutions provider Teradyne Inc of North Reading, MA, USA has partnered with photonics assembly & test equipment provider ficonTEC Service GmbH of Achim, Germany to announce the availability of what is said to be the first high-volume, double-sided wafer probe test cell for silicon photonics. The solution is designed to meet the growing demand for high-throughput electro-optical testing of silicon photonic wafers driven by co-packaged optics (CPO) applications...

At the IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS 2025) in Monterey, CA, USA (30 March–3 April), nanoelectronics research center imec of Leuven, Belgium demonstrated that, despite their positive bias (on-state) instability, gallium nitride (GaN) MISHEMTs (metal-insulator-semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors) maintain consistent performance when operating within a well-defined range. These findings support the design of reliable GaN-based power amplifiers to avoid positive bias instability and thus enable handset applications for 6G communication...

Ascent Solar Technologies Inc of Thornton, CO, USA – which makes lightweight, flexible copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules that can be integrated into consumer products, off-grid applications and aerospace applications – has received an order to revise the design of its space solar products after being evaluated by a potential customer interested in technologies capable of receiving beamed power...

Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA says that its GaNSense power ICs will power the latest 2.5kW ultra-high power density DC–DC converter for AI data centers of China-based Greatwall Power Technology Co Ltd...

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 begun shipping its SiC MOSFET modules for integration into cell cycling systems used by several of the world’s leading battery manufacturers...

To support its growth plan, specialty semiconductor and performance materials producer 5N Plus Inc (5N+) of Montreal, Québec, Canada has renewed its senior secured multi-currency revolving syndicated credit facilities, expanding its borrowing capacity from $124m to $154m. Subject to lenders’ approval, the firm can opt to further increase its credit facilities to $204m through a $50m accordion feature...

At the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco (1-3 April), Keysight Technologies Inc of Santa Rosa, CA, USA, Japan-based NTT Innovative Devices Corp, and Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes optical and photonic products for optical networks and lasers for industrial and consumer markets) have given joint demonstration of 448Gbps data transmission using 224GBaud PAM4 optical technology...

Keysight Technologies Inc of Santa Rosa, CA, USA and materials, networking and laser technology firm Coherent Corp of Saxonburg, PA, USA have collaborated on a 200G multimode technology demonstration showcased for the first time at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference & Exposition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco (1–3 April). The 200G-per-lane vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) technology provides higher data transfer rates and addresses industry demand for higher bandwidth in data centers. It should enable the industry to deliver AI/ML services while reducing power consumption and capital expense of short-reach data interconnects...

Industrial gas company Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp (TNSC) of Tokyo, Japan (part of Nippon Sanso Holdings Group) says that a TNSC SR4000HT metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reactor is being purchased by the University of South Carolina for R&D of advanced ultrawide-bandgap nitride materials and device technology...

POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and light sources for the hyperscale data-center, telecom and artificial intelligence (AI) markets — has partnered with Lessengers Inc of Seoul, South Korea — which provides optical components based on its patented direct optical wiring (DOW) technology — to offer a differentiated 800G DR8 transceiver. The transceiver will include POET’s transmit and receive optical engines and Lessenger’s Direct Optical Wiring (DOW) technology for a cost-effective solution for AI and hyperscale data center applications...

Sivers Semiconductors AB of Kista, Sweden (which supplies RF beam-former ICs for SATCOMs and photonic lasers for AI data centers) has announced a strategic partnership with optical communications device maker O-Net Technologies (Group) Co Ltd of Shenzhen, China to produce high-performance external laser sources, a critical component enabling next-generation AI data center architectures...

Indium phosphide (InP)-based optical communications device developer and manufacturer HieFo Corp of Alhambra, CA, USA (formed from management buy-out of the chips business and wafer fabrication operations of Emcore Corp in May 2024) has launched multiple new high-efficiency continuous wave distributed feedback (DFB) InP lasers, designed to address the ever-increasing demands of silicon photonics-based optical transceivers....

Altum RF of Eindhoven, The Netherlands (which designs RF, microwave and millimeter-wave semiconductors) has opened a new and larger office for its Sydney Design Center. This expansion is driven by growing business demands and includes both increased office capacity and a state-of-the-art RF characterization laboratory...