Semiconductor today

La Luce Cristallina of Austin, TX, USA – which manufactures silicon-integrated high-performance materials for silicon photonics, focused on barium titanate (BaTiO3) materials – has launched its new CMOS-compatible oxide pseudo-substrate, enabling high-quality, epitaxial strontium titanate (SrTiO3) films to be grown directly on 200mm silicon and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. This platform bridges the gap between academic oxide research and commercial manufacturing, facilitating the development of advanced oxide devices using standard semiconductor tools. The solution supports superconducting RF electronics, ultra-low-loss RF components, single-photon detectors, quantum sensing, advanced computing architectures and other emerging applications aligned with silicon photonics and heterogeneous integration...

A new white paper published by the UK’s Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult sets out how the the country could take a leading role in the next major shift in power electronics, as demand surges for smaller, faster and more energy-efficient high-voltage systems...

Nuvoton Technology Corp Japan of Kyoto, Japan has begun mass production of its KLC330FL01WW high-power ultraviolet semiconductor laser (379nm, 1.0W), which delivers what is claimed to be industry-leading optical output in a 9.0mm-diameter CAN package (TO-9)...

Ascent Solar Technologies Inc of Thornton, CO, USA – which designs and makes lightweight, flexible copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) panels that can be integrated into consumer products, off-grid applications and aerospace applications – has entered into definitive agreements for the purchase and sale of 1,818,182 shares of common stock (or pre-funded warrants in lieu thereof), series A warrants to purchase up to 1,818,182 shares of common stock and short-term series B warrants to purchase up to 909,091 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $5.50 per share of common stock (or per pre-funded warrant in lieu thereof) and accompanying warrants in a private placement priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules...

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the USA has reported the experimental demonstration of a record room-temperature 2DEG sheet density exceeding 1x1014cm2 in a single-channel AlN/GaN heterostructure grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE), using a 9nm-thick AlN barrier...

Europe has a leading position in photonic chip technology, it is reckoned. But, without targeted investment and action, the European Union (EU) risks losing its advantage as the global competition intensifies with large investments elsewhere...

NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and developed and previously manufactured high-power industrial blue lasers — has secured operating control of Italy-based Orbit S.r.l., a revenue-generating Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company focused on digitalizing operational resilience, risk intelligence, and mission-critical decision support via its Orbit Open Platform. NUBURU says that the transaction strengthens its security offering capabilities and advances its multi-vertical growth strategy through the addition of a scalable, software-driven operating business...

Ascent Solar Technologies Inc of Thornton, CO, USA – which designs and makes lightweight, flexible copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) panels that can be integrated into consumer products, off-grid applications and aerospace applications – has commented on the commercial progress, industry partnerships and solar PV efficiency improvements it achieved in 2025, as the leadership team looks ahead to continued corporate growth in 2026...

Investment in scale up, manufacturing and supply chains, could lead to significant growth and acceleration for UK companies developing photonic integrated circuits (PICs), according to a new report ‘Unlocking the Future with Photonic Integrated Circuits’ by the UK’s Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult (a not-for-profit center of excellence established by Innovate UK in 2018, specializing in the measurement, characterization, integration and validation of compound semiconductor technology spanning power electronics, advanced packaging, radio frequency and microwave, and photonics applications)...

At SPIE Photonics West 2026 in San Francisco, CA, USA (20–22 January), Polar Light Technologies AB — which stems from research by founder professor Per-Olof Holtz and his team at Linköping University (with support from Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova) — has announced that it has produced its first series of nano-scale LEDs. The firm says that this illustrates the flexibility of its patented pyramidal architecture, developed without requiring the traditional etching process...

Polar Light Technologies AB — which stems from research by founder professor Per-Olof Holtz and his team at Linköping University (with support from Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova) — has closed a €5m+ funding round led by J2L Holding AB, with participation from STOAF, Almi Invest and Butterfly Ventures . The additional funds will advance the rollout of Polar Light’s initial products, all based on its unique micro-LED architecture. This uses pyramidal structures grown without etching, enabling full RGB on a single epiwafer...

Materials, networking and laser technology firm Coherent Corp of Saxonburg, PA, USA and quantum technology company Quside have reached a milestone in hardware-based security with the demonstration of a mass-manufacturable quantum entropy source. This shows that fast, verifiable quantum entropy — an essential foundation for secure digital systems — can be embedded at scale, supporting next-generation security architectures across a wide range of applications...

Cree LED Inc of Durham, NC, USA (a Penguin Solutions brand) and Blizzard Lighting LLC have reached a mutually beneficial settlement resolving a patent infringement dispute involving Cree LED’s patents related to LED components commonly used in LED displays. As part of the settlement, Cree LED has granted Blizzard a limited license to certain Cree LED patents covering LED components...

NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and developed and previously manufactured high-power industrial blue lasers — has completed its acquisition of Lyocon S.r.l., an Italian laser-technology company specializing in the design, manufacturing and integration of high-power blue laser systems for industrial applications, with established operations, customers and recurring revenues. The transaction was completed through Nuburu Subsidiary Inc...

NUBURU Inc of Centennial, CO, USA — which was founded in 2015 and developed and previously manufactured high-power industrial blue lasers — has announced a significant advancement in its strategic partnership with Tekne S.p.A., following the execution of (i) a comprehensive industrial and commercial network contract (contratto di rete) through NUBURU’s defense subsidiary Nuburu Defense LLC, (ii) a €13m shareholder convertible loan, and (iii) the completion of an initial 2.9% equity investment in Tekne...

LIGENTEC SA of Lausanne, Switzerland – which provides silicon nitride (SiN) and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platforms with heterogeneous integration of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) and III-V materials – and analog/mixed-signal and specialty foundry X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE of Tessenderlo, Belgium have expanded their collaboration to further strengthen their integrated photonics offering and streamline customer access to advanced photonic technologies. The announcement marks the next step in aligning their portfolios to address growing demand across communication, computing, quantum and sensing markets...

Singulus Technologies AG of Kahl am Main, Germany (which makes production equipment for the optical disc and solar sectors) has received a follow-on order for a TIMARIS deposition system for the production of micro-LEDs. Following the commissioning of a first system of this type by the customer, the firm is now expanding its existing production capacities in the USA...

At SPIE Photonics West 2026 in The Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA, USA (20–22 January), micro/nanotechnology R&D center CEA-Leti of Grenoble, France is presenting new research highlighting major progress in the integration of quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) with silicon photonic platforms for mid-infrared (MIR) applications...

Materials, networking and laser technology firm Coherent Corp of Saxonburg, PA, USA has launched its bondable diamond solutions for thermal management: a diamond solution engineered with a specialized surface finish that enables direct bonding to semiconductor die for electronic and opto-electronic applications. By eliminating or dramatically reducing thermal interface resistance, bondable diamond significantly improves device cooling performance...

For coverage of all the key business and technology developments in compound semiconductors and advanced silicon materials and devices over the last month...