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Commentary & Perspective...
Agenda Set for BLUE 2005 in TaiwanMarch 22, 2005...After burning the midnight oil more days than they likely want to count, our
co-chair for BLUE 2005, Dr. Robert (Bob) Walker and his associates at YEBY,
and our President and CEO here at CompoundSemi Online, Tom Griffiths
have hammered out a great agenda
for the upcoming May 16-18, 3rd Annual BLUE
2005 meet in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It wasn't easy fitting everyone in, but the
speaker lineup even tops last year's event which was held at the same venue
in Taiwan. In just three short years, BLUE has become a very popular and inviting
event for speakers.
This marks the second year for BLUE in Taiwan (it began in 2003 in Dallas,
Texas USA) and this time around, we expect a sellout crowd. So before you do
anything else, scroll through the agenda,
mark your calendars MAY 16-18 !!), and make your travel plans by simply
clicking on "location
& hotel" at the top of www.blue2005.com
for details. Thanks to the magic of the web and the unobtrusive strength of
our industry portal, SolidStateLighting.net,
it's never been as easy as it now is to stay connected to everyone who's anybody
in the rapidly growing international SSL industry, in real time.
So what's in store for conference attendees at BLUE 2005? Not only another
great lineup of SSL industry experts as speakers, but the opportunities for
making the informal business connections that mark our CompoundSemi
Online, Inc. events. The first get-together is Monday evening with the
Networking and Welcome Reception sponsored by Aixtron.
The following morning on Tuesday, May 17th, the conference gets underway beginning
with a welcome by our trio of co-chairs, Dr. Yung-Sheng Liu, VP and General
Director of OES
at Taiwan's ITRI, Dr. Tae-Il Kim, President of the Korean
Photonic Technology Institute, and Dr. Robert Walker, Principal of YEBY
Associates.
Keynote speaker for Tuesday morning is the foremost market researcher in the
fields of HB-LEDs and GaN based devices, Dr. Robert Steele, Director of Optoelectronics
Practice at Strategies Unlimited. Bob will
bring to Taiwan the latest LED market numbers. Since his team at SU is just
finishing up their 4th edition of their acclaimed GaN technology and application
review, the information the information Bob will share will be especially fresh,
timely, and insightful. This 500 page comprehensive study, which will be off
to the printer shortly, is titled Gallium Nitride 2005 - Technology Status,
Applications, and Market Forecast. SU has been issuing their GaN study since
'97, which is updated every other year. The SU team has conducted extensive
interviews all over the world for this report. Virtually all blue spectrum
LED and LD related companies as well as GaN-based electronic sector depend heavily
on its contents. Details on ordering can be found by clicking
here. In addition, Bob will also focus on high power LEDs, developments in phosphors, and the next wave of LED applications. Miss Wu Ling, Director of China National SSL Program will discuss China's HB-LED industry and their National Solid-State Lighting Program in one of Tuesday morning's highly anticipated presentations.
After a full morning of presentations and discussion that review initiatives
from around the world, with special emphasis on Asia, the next major networking opportunity will be Tuesday lunch, sponsored
by Accent Optical Technologies. Tuesday
afternoon presenters will emphasize new application opportunities. The speakers will include
Dr. S. H. Chan, Chairman & CEO of AOT of Taiwan, addressing the Cellphone
and SMD markets and Volker Haerl, Director of R&D at Osram Opto, who will speak about penetrating
the automotive market. Rounding out the afternoon presenters, Professor Tsunemasa Taguchi of Yamaguchi University in Japan, will report on Japan's progress in their White LED Lighting Program.
Tuesday comes to an exciting climax beginning with the 4pm keynote talk by
George
Mueller, Chairman and CEO of Color
Kinetics (CK), the USA pioneer of intelligent LED illumination technologies.
CK is a publicly held company, trading on the Nasdaq exchange. CK's annual
report was filed March 10th with the Securities & Exchange Commission,
and reading it reveals to newcomers to our business precisely what the HB-LED
supply chain (which makes up the prime attendance at BLUE) is helping create.
The title of George's talk is Lighting the Night -- It's All About Control
and Intelligence. Then it's on to the Tuesday evening banquet, sponsored
by our premier diamond sponsor, Veeco.
Wednesday, May 18th and the final day of BLUE 2005 is another jam packed day
full of excellent talks and discussions highlighted by two keynote addresses.
The morning keynote will be delivered by H.S. Chung, Senior Executive VP, Dongbu
Anam of Semiconductor Inc. of Korea, and Former General Manager of Samung/SEMCO speaking
from the Korean manufacturer's perspective. Our Wednesday lunch is sponsored
by BOC Edwards. The afternoon keynote
talk during a special IP section, which is a new addition to this year's BLUE
event, will be delivered by Patricia A. Martone, a Partner at the USA Fish &
Neave IP Group of the Ropes & Gray LLP law firm. A experienced specialist
in IP issues, Pat's talk is titled Intellectual Property in the HB-LED Industry:
Lessons from history in other semiconductor markets.
BLUE 2005 will build from concerns expressed by speakers and attendees at last
year's BLUE 2004 meet, which is why we added the IP session. Several such key
issues as predicted would come true by keynote and featured speakers last year
did indeed "come true". Why? Because BLUE is a gathering of the true
production leaders of blue spectrum LEDs and laser diodes. The producers of
the key substrates, epiwafers, devices, and packaging technologies, coupled with
the innovators that enrich those production lines, are what make this industry
what it is today, and they're at the epicenter of what it's destined to be in
the near and far term future.
According to Strategies Unlimited, blue, green, and white LED technology (which
together form the "blue spectrum" and thus the name for this popular
event) has continued its large-scale commercial growth resulting in revenues
exceeding $3 billion in 2004. White LEDs, which are rapidly replacing conventional
light sources with solid state lighting solutions, are responsible for over
50% of the total GaN related LED market. The shakers and movers of this market
will all be attending BLUE 2005.
Shouldn't you plan to be there too? Registration
is now open, but trust me... it's likely to be a sellout, so
register early and be guaranteed a seat at the table. If you have questions about the
solid state lighting and compound semiconductor industries or have news
or views to share, we want to hear from you!
Feel free to contact us anytime. 
The main office line is
+1 (512) 257-9888
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March 24, 2005...Intematix Inc. of Moraga California
USA, completed a royalty-bearing Agreement related to white LED technology with
Advanced Optoelectronic Technology (AOT),
a dominant manufacturer of blue spectrum LEDs, of Hsinchu, Taiwan. According
to the licensing agreement, AOT can manufacture white LEDs based on Intematix-patented
technology that utilizes a blue InGaN (indium gallium nitride) LED combined with
a suitable fluorescent converter. The agreement was reached shortly after Intematix
created a family of patent-backed Phosphors in a 14 month development effort
using their Bulk, Thin Film and Nano Discovery Engines.
The White Lightning Y450 (operating at 450 nm wavelength and below) and the
White Lightning Y460 (operating at 460 nm wavelength) reportedly deliver YAG-equivalent
performance and color for bright light applications such as: LCD and keypad
backlighting, camera flash, automotive lighting, and large area signage and
architectural lighting. The production ready, patented Phosphor family will
be made available beginning March 24th for high volume use for designers and
manufacturers of white LED products and solutions.
“The availability of Intematix Phosphors and their acceptance by leaders
such as Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Inc. will begin a market transformation
leading to truly cost effective High Brightness White LED production,” said
Ruediger Stroh, Intematix Chief Executive Officer. Intematix VP of Sales & Marketing,
Nik Bahram said, “Our Discovery Engines allow us to develop unique material
compositions that can then be rapidly customized for our customer’s unique manufacturing
processes, and Bills of Materials including a choice of chips at various wavelengths
and support for a variety of resins.” Dr. S. H. Chan, Chief Executive Officer
of AOT said, “We will provide non-infringing white-lighting solutions to
all of our customers, and we believe Intematix will be one of our key partners.”
According to Intematix, the WL-Y450 and the WL-Y460 are available in production
quantities now. Company
News Release
 Cree Gets Key European Distributor for XLamp
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 22, 2005...Cree Inc. with headquarters in Durham, North Carolina USA has signed an agreement with Vossloh-Schwabe Optoelectronic, a European Union distributor of optoelectronic components with headquarters in Kamp-Lintfort, Germany, to distribute its XLamp LEDs in several countries of the European Union including: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and the Benelux Countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg).
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Lumileds Lighting and Future Electronics Partner in New Solid-State Lighting Business Model
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 22, 2005...While vertical integration and standards making bodies offer solutions to help engineers and manufacturers to develop truly interchangeable parts and integrated solutions in solid-state lighting, Lumileds Lighting and Future Electronics have taken a different approach with their new business model for the solid-state lighting industry. Lumileds Lighting of San Jose, California USA and Future Electronics of Montreal , Canada formed Lumileds Future Electronics, a joint effort to make it easier to develop and manufacture Luxeon-based lighting solutions.
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Interesting LED Technology Development Patent
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 24, 2005...We occasionally come accross stories about individuals
or companies with interesting patents that are looking to license their ideas
to manufacturers. Paddy Salam of London, England, the Technical Director of Unisplay
of Geneva, Switzerland, has a group of pre-prototype development patents that
our readers might find intriguing. According to Mr. Salam, the object of his patent
is to avoid the high cost of clustering and at the same time improve the electrical
efficiency of light-production by alleviating problems of light trapped or lost
in an LED chip. Mr. Salam said that there is theoretically no limit to the
size of the LED chip you could create with his design as long as the heat is dissipated.
The group of patents address high power monochrome GaN LEDs, high power monochrome
AlGaInP/AlGaAS LEDs, high power white LEDs, red/amber/cyan 2-chip traffic-lights,
and 2-chip RGB lamps. US patent #’s: 6,346,771;
6,663,120;
6,720,730; Contact Paddy Salam at Unisplay for more details and possible licensing arrangements: Unisplay S. A., 63 Lowther Road, London SW13 9NT, psalam@advanceled.com, Tel: 44 20 8741 3285.
Osaka Research Group Creates LED-Based Indoor Positioning System Without GPS
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 23, 2005...A research group at Osaka University has developed an indoor positioning system using infrared LEDs, but it does not use the GPS (Global Positioning System), according to a report from a Nikkei Net Interactive article.
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Quantum Dots Boost Silicon Light-Emitting Capability--Long Way to Go Before Competitive
CompoundSemi News StaffMarch 21, 2005...Susumu Fukatsu and his University of Tokyo Colleagues have demonstrated a silicon-based LED that uses strained quantum dots made of Gallium Antimonide (GaSb) to boost its ability to emit light, according to an Optics.org article. The device reportedly achieved an external quantum efficiency of 0.3%.
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 Veeco Projects Growth and Announces Status of Corrective Actions
Scott McMahanMarch 17, 2005...In a quarterly conference call Edward H. Braun, chairman and CEO of Veeco said that they should have about a two percent increase in revenue per quarter over the next three quarters despite the likely decline in the LED and wireless equipment sales resulting from market saturation in 2005. Mr. Braun reported, “Revenues increased in all our core markets, with particular strength in LED, wireless, data storage and semiconductor.” Mr Braun added, “Our 2005 focus is to improve our profitability across our Process Equipment and Metrology product lines and to position Veeco for what we currently believe are strong growth opportunities in 2006 and beyond.”
Veeco announced their completion of the internal investigation of improper accounting at their TurboDisc business unit. Jeferson Wells, a firm retained by Veeco’s audit committee, reported the findings. According to Veeco, “Conclusions reached during the investigation included that the improper entries were made by a single individual at TurboDisc whose employment had been terminated prior to the commencement of the investigation.” The company said that the investigation, that began after an internal audit found improper accounting, focused on, “the value of inventory, accounts payable and certain liabilities, as well as certain revenue transactions of TurboDisc.” Mr Braun added, “Actions have been taken to resolve these accounting issues, including the completion of an independent review, appropriate staffing changes, and transitioning TurboDisc to Veeco's SAP accounting system."
He said, that they expanded the investigation into, “other parts of the company in certain areas just as a precaution and found nothing to warrant any further examination or expansion of the search.” Mr. Braun explained, “Its only limited to one individual, and one site, and he is very much contained…No motive was found; there was no provable embezzlement. No assets left the building. Nobody seems to have individually prospered because of this. No one was coerced by management or the company to follow this incorrect accounting. We have found the problem, we have fixed the problem.”
In related news, Veeco appointed Richard Wissenbach as Senior Vice President, General Manager for its Compound Semiconductor/Epitaxial Process Equipment Group, which includes the TurboDisc MOCVD operation in Somerset, New Jersey USA and its MBE operations in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Company News Release
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