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Updated on October 25th

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Older News:

Cree, Inc. has been in the news quite a bit in the past week or so with new products, new deals and new contracts - plus a move away from silicon to focus on SiC and GaN. First off it has been awarded a $12 m contract by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to develop SiC-based high voltage, high power electronic devices and power modules that can significantly reduce the size and weight of power management equipment aboard the U.S. Navy's next generation aircraft carriers and other sea vessels. Clearing the way for the increased adoption of white LEDs, COTCO International announced that Cree has licensed it to manufacture white LEDs under Cree's white LED patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,600,175. The license agreement, announced recently, authorizes COTCO to practice the licensed patent using Cree-supplied dice, removing a barrier to the acquisition of these increasingly popular LED products. Cree also released of two new LED chips: the MegaBright® 290 Gen 2 and the RazerThin® 230. The MegaBright 290 Gen 2, a high brightness chip, is 30 percent brighter and uses 8 percent less power than the chip it replaces. This new chip is targeted for digital camera, camera phone flash, and LCD backlighting applications, where brightness and power efficiency are critical considerations. Not too surpisingly, Cree is to close the silicon RF and microwave semiconductor business of its wholly owned subsidiary, Cree Microwave, Inc., located in Sunnyvale. This business manufactures silicon-based laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) and bipolar products. The Company intends to focus on wide bandgap RF and microwave products based on its SiC and GaN technology. Finally, it has signed an agreement with Tecnika Due srl to distribute Cree® XLamp™ power LEDs in Italy. Tecnika Due, a distributor and value-added reseller of electronic components and subsystems since 1982, has been representing Cree’s energy-saving power components since 2002.

AIXTRON Swan Successes in PRC & Taiwan

On 31st, May, 2005 - AIXTRON AG announced the delivery of an additional Thomas Swan MOCVD system for the mass production of GaN-based ultra high brightness LED wafers and chips to Genesis Photonics Inc. The Thomas Swan large-scale GaN reactor, which is equipped with the patented and worldwide unique Close Coupled Showerhead technology, has a capacity of 19x2” wafers. It offers an extremely high uniformity of the deposited materials, which leads to remarkable yields.
Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI), established in January 2002 and headquartered in the Southern Taiwan Science-Base Industrial Park, with offices in Taipei and Shenzhen, China focuses on providing GaN-based LED Epi-wafers and Chips for lighting, displays, backlights, and automotive applications as well as for scientific, industrial, and research applications.
A Genesis spokesman stated: "Our innovative engineering and state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, which heavily rely on the unique Thomas Swan MOCVD showerhead technology, have made Genesis Photonics gradually become the mainstream trend in the market. Our products have become the first choice of leading luminous components around the world. GPI will stick to the principle of "We Light up the World", truly to serve and share with our customers, to develop efficient products and to win every promising market."
Dr. Christian Geng, General Manager of AIXTRON Taiwan said: ”Although established only very recently, Genesis’ success story is based on AIXTRON’s key enabling MOCVD technology, especially the showerhead technology, and the skills of the innovative and highly motivated engineers of this young company. Highly professional and prompt customer support are the contribution we are proud to make as Genesis’ local supplier.”

First Near UV Laser Diode Developed In China - On 23rd May, 2005,  AIXTRON AG, announced the development of the first near UV laser diode by the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Science (ISCAS) in Beijing, using a Thomas Swan MOCVD reactor.
Two years ago, ISCAS expanded its research and development capability by installing a state-of-the-art Thomas Swan Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) MOCVD reactor. The 3x2" GaN on sapphire and 1x4" GaN on silicon MOCVD reactor has been utilized primarily for the development of short-wavelength laser diodes and UV photo-detector based devices.
After two years of research, the State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics research group at ISCAS, led by Professor Hui Yang, in collaboration with another research group headed by Professor LiangHui Chen has been successful in developing the first near UV laser diode in Mainland China.
The near UV laser diode employed 5 period InGaN/GaN MQWs as the active region and AlGaN/GaN superlattices as the cladding layer, which was epitaxially grown on a GaN/Sapphire template. The lasing wavelength is 410 nm. The laser diode is gain-guided with a strip width of 5 micrometers and a strip length of 800 micrometers.
The 3x2” (1x4”) Close Coupled Showerhead reactor is part of the successful CCS reactor family. These reactors with capacities of up to 19x2” have established their leading role in the LED industry. LED manufacturers in Taiwan, USA, South Korea and Japan are successfully using these reactors for the epi-growth of green, blue, and UV LED structures.

Sumitomo Signs $200 Million Agreement With Cree

May 26: Cree, Inc., announced that its Japanese distributor, Sumitomo Corporation, has agreed to purchase $200 million of Cree's LED products during Cree's fiscal year ending June 2006, subject to end-customer demand and other terms and conditions. This record purchase commitment was added to the existing distributorship agreement, which extends through Cree's fiscal year ending June 2007. Both companies anticipate that purchases will be made across Cree's full line of LED chip products representing its standard brightness, mid-brightness and high brightness devices, including MegaBright, XBright and XThin LEDs.

LED Lamps provide passenger-cabin reading light

LEDtronics, Inc., LED Lamps provide passenger-cabin reading light - models BSD1890 and BSD1888 offer drop-in replacements for incandescent lamp Nos. 2232 and 2266 and halogen lamp No. 0201789-001, which are used in 28 V reading light fixtures in airplane cabinets, passenger trains, and coach buses. Available in 9 and 15 mm single-contact bayonet bases, units do not require modifications prior to installation. Each features 28 warm white 5 mm LEDs and draws 1.5–2.0 W.
LEDtronics Inc. introduces drop-in replacements BSD1890 and BSD1888 LED Passenger Reading Lamps for incandescent lamps #2232, #2266 and halogen lamp #0201789-001 that are used in 28V reading light fixtures in airplane cabins, passenger trains and coach buses. These energy-efficient and long-lived illuminators are available in 9mm and 15mm single-contact bayonet bases and don't require modifications prior to installation. Each model features 28 warm white 5mm LEDs (4500K). They only draw between 1.5 and 2.0W compared with 18W and 21W for GE's incandescent #2232 and #2266 respectively.

Blu-ray Disc Update

At Computex in Taipei, BenQ was demonstrating one of the few working Blu-ray Disc optical drive prototypes present.
The drive was developed with Philips as part of the Philips BenQ Digital Storage joint venture formed by the two companies in 2003, said Caroline Hsu, a specialist in BenQ's branding department, speaking at Computex.
A demonstration at the company's booth showed playback of a high-definition video stored on a Blu-ray Disc via the drive. BenQ couldn't provide an estimate of when the drive will be launched or its likely price. CyberLink Corp. showcased two main themes at the upcoming Computex show: Next Generation DVD Burning and Total Solutions for Digital Home Entertainment.
CyberLink will showcase the newest release of DVD Solution: a complete suite packed with powerful DVD applications. DVD Solution combines award-winning software from CyberLink for playing movies, editing videos, authoring DVDs, burning data, ripping music, printing labels and much, much more.
With high definition DVD recorders and high-capacity, high-quality discs on the horizon, CyberLink will also showcase its latest playback and burning applications for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs across its entertainment product line. Solutions on display included Blu-ray and HD DVD support for both disc burning and high definition video playback