Semiconductor today

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...

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...

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...

Deposition equipment maker Aixtron SE in Herzogenrath, near Aachen, Germany is to supply a G10-AsP metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system to Nokia Corp, enabling it to produce 6-inch indium phosphide (InP) wafers. This marks a significant milestone in the evolution of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), says Aixtron...

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) has announced limited sampling of its new 400/800G ZR+ L-band pluggable transceivers, along with general availability of its 800G ZR+ C-band module. Both products are being showcased in live demonstrations in booth #2119 at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference & Exposition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco (30 March–3 April)...

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) has announced new advancements in foundational indium phosphide (InP) photonic chip technologies designed to deliver higher bandwidth and more power-efficient connectivity for next-generation AI-driven data centers. Its latest InP innovations — enabling future 400Gbps-per-lane optical links, more efficient 200Gbps-per-lane optical links, and co-packaged optics — are being showcased in live demonstrations and a technical presentation in booth #2119 at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference & Exposition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco (1–3 April)...

Photonic application-specific integrated circuit (PASIC) chip designer and manufacturer OpenLight of Santa Barbara, CA, USA (which launched as an independent company in June 2022, introducing the first open silicon photonics platform with heterogeneously integrated III-V lasers) has announced a new ecosystem partnership with Suzhou TFC Optical Communication Co Ltd (TFC, a provider of optical sub-assembly integrated solutions and advanced optoelectronic package manufacturing services) aimed at advancing the silicon photonics back-end process...

In booth #2119 at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference & Exposition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco (1–3 April), 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) and data infrastructure semiconductor solutions provider Marvell Technology Inc of Santa Clara, CA, USA are giving an industry-first demonstration integrating Marvell 400G/per lane PAM4 technology operating at 225Gbaud with Lumentum’s indium phosphide (InP) monolithically integrated DFB–MZI optical transmitter, highlighting what is claimed to be a milestone in advancing next-generation, high-bandwidth and lower-power-per-bit optics for artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) and cloud infrastructure...

High-power semiconductor laser designer Casela Technologies of Santa Clara, CA, USA has launched the ELSA-16, a pluggable 16-channel External Laser Source (ELS) platform designed to unlock new levels of performance, flexibility and scalability in co-packaged optics (CPO) and silicon photonics-based systems powering AI workloads...

Phlux Technology —which was spun off from the University of Sheffield in 2020 and designs and manufactures 1550nm avalanche photodiode (APD) infrared sensors — has announced a £9m (US$11.7m) Series A funding round, led by BGF (said to be the UK and Ireland’s most active growth capital investor) joined by existing backers including Octopus Ventures, Northern Gritstone, and Foresight...