Semiconductor today

Epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK has appointed Jutta Meier to its board as chief financial officer, effective from 22 January...

Epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK has appointed Rina Pal-Goetzen as VP of government affairs...

In a a pre-close trading update for full-year 2023, epiwafer and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK says that it expects revenue to be at least £115m. This is down 31% on 2022’s £167.5m. However, it reflects a more than 20% increase from first-half to second-half 2023, in line with previously issued guidance. IQE expects this to result in an adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of at least £3m and a net debt position of about £3m...

For its fiscal first-quarter 2024 (to end-November 2023), LED chip and component maker SemiLEDs Corp of Hsinchu, Taiwan has reported revenue of $1.65m, down slightly on $1.695m a year ago but up on $1.453m last quarter...

Independent power electronics company Quantum Power Transformation (QPT) of Cambridge, UK — which was founded in 2019 and specializes in developing next-generation gallium nitride (GaN)-based motor drives — has appointed Rupert Baines as its CEO, effective from 1 April. He is a veteran of the semiconductor industry with C-level roles including CEO of UltraSoC (sold to Siemens) and chief marketing officer of Codasip...

Lynred of Grenoble, France, which designs and manufactures infrared (IR) detectors for aerospace, defense and commercial applications, has appointed Hervé Bouaziz as executive president and Xavier Caillouet as CEO...

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 completed its acquisition of contract manufacturer GaNWorks Foundry Inc, following the installation and validation of core GaN wafer processing equipment at its laser production fab in Silicon Valley...

Mojo Vision Inc of Saratoga, CA, USA — which is developing and commercializing micro-LED display technology for consumer, enterprise and government applications — has integrated red, green and blue (RGB) sub-pixels into a first-of-its-kind single panel using its proprietary high performance quantum dots (QDs) and integration processes. The proof-of-concept integrates 1.3μm-diameter red and green QD-based sub-pixels adjacent to 1.3μm-diameter native blue sub-pixels, demonstrating the viability of the company’s path to developing single-panel RGB micro-LED displays. The milestone is said to mark significant momentum toward scaling micro-LED technology and its use in augmented reality (AR) devices for peak performance in diverse outdoor environments...

Guerrilla RF Inc (GRF) of Greensboro, NC, USA — which develops and manufactures radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for wireless applications — has received an initial purchase order (PO) of $1m for a new point-to-multipoint (PTMP) wireless infrastructure design win associated with its GRF2013 gain block. Delivery is scheduled for early second-quarter 2024. Management estimates the upper end of the design win to offer a $3.5m opportunity for calendar year 2024, of which the firm has only included $1m in released projections. This is a new production ramp and adds to existing sales...

Independent power electronics company Quantum Power Transformation (QPT) of Cambridge, UK (which was founded in 2020) has won the ABB Power Density Start-up Challenge 2023 for Motor Drive Products. QPT says that its qGaN technology solves the issues of RF and overheating so that GaN can now be driven at the very high speeds needed to deliver major power savings in motors and drives...

KYOCERA SLD Laser Inc (KSLD) of Goleta, near Santa Barbara, CA, USA — which is commercializing gallium nitride (GaN)-based laser light sources for automotive, mobility, specialty lighting and consumer applications — has unveiled Laser-based Automotive Headlight Modules and FiberLight Grille Assemblies, demonstrating them at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024) in Las Vegas (9–12 January)...

Silicon photonics-based chip-to-chip optical connectivity firm Ayar Labs of Santa Clara, CA, USA says that Ganesh Moorthy, president & CEO of Microchip Technology Inc, and technology entrepreneur Craig Barratt, former CEO of Atheros and current chair of the board of Intuitive Surgical, are joining its board of directors. Also, Ayar’s co-founder Vladimir Stojanovic has been named chief technology officer...

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA says that its new facility in Tamil Nadu, India, the country’s first fully vertically integrated solar manufacturing plant, has been inaugurated by Dr T R B Rajaa (Minister for Industries, Promotions and Commerce of the Government of Tamil Nadu) in a ceremony attended by Eric Garcetti (the US Ambassador to India) and Scott Nathan, CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)...

Transphorm Inc of Goleta, CA, USA is to be acquired by a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corp of Tokyo, Japan for $5.10 per share in cash (a premium of about 35% to Transphorm’s closing stock price on 10 January, and about 56% to the volume-weighted average price over the last 12 months and 78% to that over the last six months). The transaction values Transphorm at about $339m...

According to the latest report ‘TrendForce 2024 Infrared Sensing Application Market and Branding Strategies’, the market for consumer electronics 3D sensing vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) fell to US$847m in 2023 due to weak consumer demand and pricing pressure...

Gallium nitride (GaN) power IC and silicon carbide (SiC) technology firm Navitas Semiconductor Corp of Torrance, CA, USA has appointed Janet Chou as executive VP, chief financial officer & treasurer, effective upon the filing of Navitas’ 2023 annual report on Form 10‑K expected at the end of February...

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 secured its first purchase order of alpha gallium nitride (GaN) distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. The customer is a “pioneer in photonic and fiber-based laser technology” and will use BluGlass’ prototype blue DFB lasers in the development of defence, aviation and scientific applications...

Infineon Technologies AG of Munich, Germany has formalized an agreement for compound semiconductor wafer maker SK Siltron CSS of Auburn, MI, USA (a subsidiary of South Korea-based SK Siltron, a part of the SK Group) to provide it with 150mm silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, supporting the production of SiC semiconductors. In a subsequent phase, SK Siltron CSS will assist Infineon’s transition to 200mm-diameter SiC wafers...

Wide-bandgap power semiconductor materials, component and foundry services provider Sanan Semiconductor Co Ltd of Hunan, China has announced Luminus Devices Inc of Sunnyvale, CA, USA — which designs and makes LEDs and solid-state technology (SST) light sources for illumination markets — as its exclusive sales channel in the Americas. Both companies are subsidiaries of China’s Sanan Optoelectronics, the world’s largest LED chip maker...

Deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE of Herzogenrath, Germany has received a supplier award from onsemi of Scottsdale, AZ, USA. With its new G10-SiC chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and customer service on-site, Aixtron is supporting the production ramp-up of onsemi’s facility in Bucheon, South Korea, which was achieved in record time. With a production capacity of more than 1 million 200mm SiC wafers per year, the facility is one of the world’s largest silicon carbide (SiC) fabs. At the inaugural event of the new S5 production line, Aixtron was among the suppliers receiving this award...